iLlBRARY OF CONb 

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! UNITED STATK8 DF AMERICA. ! 



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A MEMOIR 



LADY ANNA MACKENZIE 



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Printed by R. Clark 

FOR 

EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS, EDINBURGH. 

LONDON . . . HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. 

CAMBRIDGE . . MACMILLAN AND CO. 

DUBLIN . . . m'gLASHAN AND GILL. 

GLASGOW . . . JAMES MACLEHOSE. 




LADY ANNA MACKENZIE, 



COUNTRSS OF BALCAKKES, AND SUBSRQUHNTLY OK AKGYLE. 



A MEMOIR 



LADY ANNA MACKENZIE 

COUNTESS OF BALCARRES 

AND AFTERWARDS OF ARGYLL 

t . — 

162I-I706 



BY 

ALEXANDER LORD LINDSAY 

MASTER OF CRAWFORD AND BALCARRES 



^Nq}> 






Y 

EDINBURGH C/ 
EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS 
1868 



PREFACE. 



The compilation of the following Memoir was sug- 
gested to me by David Douglas, Esq., who favoured 
me at the same time with three of the letters of 
Lady Balcarres here printed. These had originally 
been discovered by Mr. Vere Irving among the rich 
stores of correspondence left by John Duke of Lau- 
derdale, and now preserved in the British Museum ; 
and I am indebted to that gentleman for the use of 
transcripts made by him from other of her letters 
existing in that series. Two letters at pp. 49, 70, 
were communicated to me several years ago by the 
courtesy of Richard Almack, Esq. of Melford, Suf- 
folk. The letter to Lauderdale, printed at p. 63, was 
the only one of Lady Balcarres' writing that I had 
seen when I published the "Lives of the Lindsays" 
many years ago. The letters of Sir Robert Moray 
to Alexander Bruce, Earl of Kincardine, which have 
supplied me with some interesting details, and which 
are the property of Professor Innes, were communi- 



VI PREFACE. 

cated to me by Mr. Douglas, with the owner's kind 
permission, at the same time with the letters above 
mentioned. The present Memoir is thus much 
fuller than that given in the "Lives ;" and it includes 
also many details respecting the life of the heroine 
while the wife and widow of Archibald Earl of 
Argyll, which would not have found an appropriate 
place in that work. 

My acknowledgments are due to the present Sea- 
forth for permission to engrave the portrait of Lady 
Balcarres, preserved at Brahan Castle. The task has 
been executed with fidelity and skill by Mr. Cooper, 
of 1 88 Strand, London. 



MEMOIR 

OF 

LADY ANNA MACKENZIE. 



CHAPTER I. 

ANNA Countess of Balcarres, and afterwards of Argyll, 
the subject of the following Memoir, was the daughter 
of Colin, surnamed Ruadh, or the Red, Earl of Seaforth, 
chief of the great Highland clan of the Mackenzies, by 
Margaret Seyton, daughter of Alexander Earl of Dunferm- 
line, Chancellor of Scotland under King James I. She was 
the wife successively of Alexander Lindsay, Earl of Balcarres, 
the husband of her youth, who died in exile in 1659, and of 
Archibald, the virtuous but unfortunate Earl of Argyle, be- 
headed in 1685, whom she married when in the decline 
of life. Born during the early and happier spring of the 
seventeenth century, her days extended over the stormy 
summer of the Great Civil War, the chequered autumn that 
succeeded the Restoration, and the Revolution of 1688; 
and she even survived that culminating epoch of the cen- 
tury for very nearly twenty years. She was actively con- 
cerned, through her two husbands and her children, in 
many of the important events which occurred during that 
long interval. And her noble quahties of head and heart 
rendered her the object of the admiration and attachment 
not only of her own family but of several of the wisest and 

B 



2 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

best among her contemporaries, eliciting not only the praise 
of the illustrious nonconformist Richard Baxter, who esteemed 
her " the honour of" her '' sex and nation," but the testi- 
mony of the Cavalier and classic Cowley, who in his elegiac 
verses '' Upon the death of the Earl of Balcarres " does not 
hesitate to affirm that 

" his virtues and His lady too 
Were things celestial." 



Alexander Lord Balcarres, the first husband of Anna 
Mackenzie, was also her cousin-german, and the marriage 
was one, not of interest, but of affection on both sides. A 
Scottish memoir is almost always preceded by a short genea- 
logical notice, and such a preface is pecuharly requisite in 
the present instance in order to account for the various 
relationships and intimacies which will present themselves 
to the reader in the following pages. These relationships 
are all primarily referrible to the friendship w^hich subsisted 
between Lady Anna's and Lord Balcarres' respective grand- 
fathers, Alexander Earl of Dunfermline above mentioned, 
younger son of George fifth Lord Seyton and brother of the 
first Earl of Wintoun, and John Lindsay of Balcarres, second 
son of David ninth Earl of Crawford, a Lord of Session 
under the title of ^' Lord Menmuir," and Lord Privy Seal 
and Secretary of State towards the close of the sixteenth 
century. They were men, each of them, of great ability 
and noble personal character. Lindsay — the father of the 
important enactments of 1587, by which the constitution of 
the Scottish ParHament was reformed, and the power of the 
great feudal nobles abridged, thus introducing the modern 
era of Scottish history — is recorded by Archbishop Spots- 
wood as a man '' of exquisite learning and a sound judg- 
ment, held worthy by all men of the place he had in the 
senate both for his wisdom and integrity," and by the sterner 
and Presbyterian Melville as ^' a man of the greatest learning 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 3 

and solid.natural wit joined with that," " for natural judgment 
and learning the greatest light of the policy and council of 
Scotland." Seyton, on the other hand, is described by 
John Drummond Earl of Perth in his autobiography as 
'^ endued with most virtuous, learned, and heroic qualities," 
and as " having spent a great part of his youth in the best 
towns of Italy and France, where all good literature was 
professed," " a man most just and wise, deserving greater 
commendation than paper can contain." Lindsay died, 
comparatively young, in 1598, and bequeathed his son 
David, afterwards the first Lord Lindsay of Balcarres, to 
the " faithful friendliness " and guardianship of Seyton, then 
Lord Fyvie, but soon to be distinguished by his higher title 
of Earl of Dunfermline. David thus became the companion 
and playmate of Lord Dunfermline's daughter Sophia Seyton, 
and an attachment sprang up between them which ended 
in their marriage in 161 2. Nearly about the same time 
Margaret Seyton, Sophia's sister, married Colin Lord Kin- 
tail, afterwards Earl of Seaforth, above mentioned. Of 
these two marriages Alexander Earl of Balcarres and Lady 
Anna Mackenzie were respectively the issue, and thus, as 
has been stated, cousins-german. Isabel Seyton, a third 
sister, married the excellent and accomplished John Mait- 
land, first Earl of Lauderdale ; and their son was John, 
the celebrated Earl and Duke of Lauderdale subsequently 
to the Restoration. The warmest personal affection united 
these families, thus closely alhed by the ties of consangui- 
nity ; and an additional and common link connected them 
with John LesHe, sixth Earl of Rothes, who on the death 
of Lord Seaforth became the guardian of Lady Anna, 
still at that time unmarried. The Earls of Wintoun, of 
Perth, and. of Southesk, and Lord Yester, afterwards Earl 
of Tweeddale, belonged to the same kindred group ; and 
John Lord Lindsay of the Byres, afterwards seventeenth 
Earl of Crawford, stood in near alliance towards most of 
its members. 



4 Me7noir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

The period during which the parents of Lady Anna and 
her husband flourished, and within which the first twenty years 
of their own hves fell, was one of almost unclouded national 
and domestic sunshine north of the Tweed. One such hal- 
cyon period lived in the memory of Scotland, and but one 
only, the period of tranquillity and prosperity which pre- 
ceded the untimely death of Alexander III. in 1286, and 
the termination of which ushered in the war of independ- 
ence against England under Wallace and King Robert 
Bruce. The intervening centuries had witnessed a per- 
petual struggle, not only external, against Scotland's 
southern neighbour, but internal, between the Crown and 
the great feudal barons contending for the supremacy, and 
between those barons themselves, constantly engaged in 
private feuds ; and this state of things lasted with scarcely 
perceptible amelioration even to the accession of James 
VI. to the throne of England in 1603. An additional ele- 
ment of discord had been introduced through the Refor- 
mation ; and during the last half of the sixteenth century 
the country was distracted by the struggles of the adherents 
of the ancient Church and of the Kirk, or Presbyterian 
establishment, each endeavouring to extirpate the other. 
The victory remained with the Presbyterians, and, although 
modifications had been made in the constitution of the 
Kirk towards the close of the century which were destined 
to become the source of fresh dissension in after years, all 
for the present — I am speaking of the period between 
1603, or I would rather say 16 10, and 1640 — was upon 
the whole peaceful and serene. It was a time of repose 
and refreshment, intellectual and moral, throughout the 
nation. Scotland had always, even in the midst of her 
wars, been addicted to letters and the arts of peace — the 
sons of her aristocracy had for many generations been 
educated abroad — Scottish merchants flourished in every 
commercial emporium in Europe — Scottish professors lec- 
tured in every foreign university ; and, at home, the feudal 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 5 

chiefs who waged relentless war against their private ene- 
mies not* unfrequently studied law, wrote fair Latin, were 
familiar through continental travel with the modern languages 
and literature, appreciated the arts, and adorned their castles 
with architectural and sculptural embellishment. The 
contemporaries of James VI., who inherited these several 
influences in almost equal proportion, thus partook of the 
double character of feudal baron and accomplished gentle- 
man — a combination very picturesque, however incon- 
gruous, in its strangely harmonised attributes. But the two 
characters became much more distinct in the sons of that 
generation of transition. Feudality receded into the wilder 
regions of the country, while civilisation and, in a word, 
the modern impulses of thought and life acquired a pre- 
dominant influence over the more refined and cultivated 
branches of the Scottish aristocracy who were seated near 
the capital, almost in fact in proportion to the degree of such 
propinquity. The foundation for all this had been laid 
by the wise measures above alluded to, initiated by Secre- 
tary Lindsay (during his earlier years), curbing the abuses 
of feudal power ; and the strongest possible encouragement 
was given to these elements of progress (and far beyond 
the narrow bounds just indicated) by the stern impartiality 
and peremptory decision of the Chancellor Dunfermline in 
enforcing the laws against all, high and low, who trans- 
gressed them. The special and personal influence of this 
remarkable man was no less felt within the domestic circle 
of his intimates. The family of the Seytons had been 
pecuharly noted, even in purely feudal times, for the more 
graceful and liberaHsing tendencies of their age, and their 
impress, through Lord Dunfermline, was, if I mistake not, 
strongly marked on the whole family group of Lindsays, 
Mackenzies, Maitlands, Drummonds, and others, which I 
have above exhibited. Among these, David Lord Balcan-es, 
DunfermHne's son-in-law. Lady Anna Mackenzie's '' good- 
father " or father-in-law, was remarkable for his literary and 



6 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

scientific tastes and his well-stored and curious library. 
John Earl of Lauderdale, Lord Balcarres' most intimate 
friend, was in many respects of similar character ; and his 
successor, the Duke of Lauderdale, was one of the principal 
book-collectors of his time. The instinct for such pursuits, 
the inherent love of knowledge and graceful accomplish- 
ment, may have descended both to Balcarres and Lauder- 
dale from their fathers. Secretary Lindsay and Chancellor 
Maitland ; but in either case, through the early loss of 
the parents, the development and direction of the youthful 
genius of the sons was due, if I mistake not, to the Seyton 
father-in-law. I must mention Sir Robert Moray also, 
Lord Balcarres' son-in-law, an accomplished natural philo- 
sopher, the founder and first president — " the fife and soul," 
as Evelyn calls him — of the Royal Society, as sharing in the 
same intellectual inheritance. These are but illustrations 
of the great change which had passed over the better spirit 
of Scotland ; and this spirit was necessarily reflected in the 
manners of the time. During the whole of the thirty years, 
from 1610 to 1640, which I have above specified, these 
Scottish gentlemen lived a life as nearly as possible resem- 
bling {mutatis 7niita7tdis) that of their descendants in the 
present day — dwelling in the country, maintaining kindly 
relations with their vassals, tenants, and followers ; planting 
the hills on their estates with forest trees ; opening quarries, 
sinking and working mines of every description from silver 
to coal ; adding to and decorating their paternal residences ; 
paying each other visits, more or less prolonged, at their re- 
spective abodes ; gathering together their friends and neigh- 
bours occasionally for country sports; and meeting collectively 
once or twice every year in Edinburgh during the session of 
the Scottish Parliament, which continued to assemble and 
transact the whole affairs of the country down, as will 
be remembered, to the Union of Scotland and England into 
the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The picture 
thus drawn would not, I readily admit, be correct, if under- 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 7 

stood of the entire kingdom ; but with reference to the 
neighbourhood of Edinburgh, to East Lothian, and in a very 
pecuHar manner, to the '* kingdom " or county of Fife, it 
is, I think, in no wise exaggerated. I do not of course 
affirm that the age was not still an age of feudalism, even 
in the favoured regions in question, — on the contrary, the 
ancient spirit would break out occasionally with startling 
independence ; but it was feudalism veiled, as it were, and 
softened rather than echpsed, its fiercer rays 

*' disarm' d, 
And as in slumber laid." 

The one grand exception, the per contra^ the cloud in the 
sky which cast dark shadows over the general scene of 
comparative national happiness which I have attempted to 
delineate, consisted in the systematic depression, or rather 
persecution, to which the adherents of the older religious 
faith, the Roman Catholics, were subjected during the 
whole of this period, and indeed throughout the greater 
part of the century. But unhesitating conviction and 
uncompromising intolerance were the characteristics of the 
age ; every church persecuted and was persecuted by turns ; 
and it would be unjust therefore to blame one more than 
another where all were equally culpable in the hght of our 
own age, although equally conscientious in that of their 
own. None however of the families above enumerated 
belonged to the persecuted church, or were themselves (so 
far as I am aware) concerned in the persecution ; and I 
think therefore that we may acquiesce without hesitation in 
the pleasant impressions of the family life of Scotland in 
1610-40 presented as above to our contemplation. And, 
as a special example, a voice from the very actual past, is 
worth volumes of generalisation, I shall close these preli- 
minary remarks by transcribing a letter addressed by David 
Lord Balcarres in 1635 to his son Alexander, Lady Anna's 
future husband, on his return, at the age of seventeen, to the 



8 Memoir of Lady A7ina Mackenzie, 

University of St. Andrews after a vacation of unusually 
pleasant dissipation, — there is nothing in it beyond the • 
utterance of simple faith and homely wisdom, but it will 
illustrate the spirit which animated the social circle of which 
Alexander and the fair Anna were youthful members. It 
is as follows : — 

*' Alexander, — 

' ' Let me remember you again of what your mother 
and I spake to you before your going there" {i.e. to college), *'for the 
long vacance and jolliness that ye have seen this lang time bygane 
makes me think that ye will have mister (need) to be halden in mind 
of your own weal ; for I know what difficulty it is to one of your con- 
stitution and years to apply their mind to study after so long an 
intermission. And, first of all, we recommend to you again the true 
fear of God your Maker, which is the beginning of all wisdom, and 
that, evening and morning, ye cease not to incall for His divine blessing 
to be upon you and all your enterprises : — Secondly, that ye apply your 
mind to virtue, which cannot be acquired without learning ; and, seeing 
ye are there for that end, redeem your time, and lose it not, and be not 
carried away with the innumerable conceits and follies incident to 
youth ; for the man is happy for ever that governs weill his youthhead, 
and spends that time weill above all the time of his life ; for youth is 
the tempest of life, wherein we are in most peril, and has maist mister 
of God, the great Pilot of the world, to save us. Therefore, as ye 
wald wish the blessing of God to be upon you, and the blessing of us 
your parents, remember and do what is both said and written to you. 
Also, forget not to carry yourself discreetly to all, and use maist the 
company that we tauld you of. Many wald be glad to have the happi- 
ness of guid direction of life, which ye want not ; and the fault will 
be in you, and not in us, your parents, if ye mak not guid use of your 
golden time, — and ye may be doubly blamed, seeing God has indued 
you with ingyne (genius) and capacity for learning, if ye apply it not 
the right way, being so kindly exhorted to it ; for the cost that is v/airit 
(spent) upon you we will think all weill bestowit if ye mak yourself 
answerable to our desires ; which is, to spend your time weill, in 
learning to fear God aright, and to be a virtuous man, as I have said. 
— Last, forget not to keep your person always neat and cleanly, and 
your clothes or any things ye have, see they be not abused ; and press 
to be a guid manager, for things are veiy easily misguidit or lost, but 
not easily acquirit, and sloth and carelessness are the ways to want. 

* ' I will expect a compt from you of your carriage shortly, and how 
ye have ta'en thir things to heart. 

" God Almighty direct you and bless you !" 



Memoir of Lady Anna Macke7izie. 9 

These general observations premised, I shall now ad- 
dress myself to the immediate object of this memoir. 

I cannot fix the date of Lady Anna's birth with exact- 
ness, but from various indications I think it must have been 
in the year 1621. The influences of her early childhood 
were, with one exception, everything that could be wished 
for ; but that exception was indeed grievous. Her mother 
seems to have died early, — she is described as " a wise and 
virtuous lady " by Sir Robert Gordon, the historian of the 
Earldom of Sutherland ; and the loss of such a friend 
and councillor must have been inseparable. Lord Sea- 
forth was however well competent to supply the pri- 
vation in everything but mother's love. I have not as 
yet spoken of him particularly, but he was not unworthy 
of association with the band of friends assembled as 
sons-in-law round the kindly hearth of Lord Dunfermline. 
I gather this from the testimony of a contemporary who 
speaks of him as " a most religious and virtuous lord," " of 
a noble spirit," " much liked by his king, and all those that 
ever was with him," and who, besides erecting the Castle of 
Brahan, his principal residence, built and endowed churches 
" in every barony of his Highlands," and founded a grammar- 
school " in the town of Channorie, called Fortrose." Sea- 
forth and his wife had but two children, both of them 
daughters ; and of these Anna was the younger. The 
name of the eldest was Jean,--~she married successively the 
Master of Caithness and Alexander Lord Dufifus, and died 
still young in 1648, leaving but one child, (by her first hus- 
band), George sixth Earl of Caithness, who died without 
issue in 1676. She will not figure further in this narrative. 
I suspect the sisters seldom met after their lives' early 
springtime, when they passed their days together among 
their kinsmen of the clans of Mackenzie and Ross, in 
familiarity with the lovely scenery of their father's "country," 
speaking the language of the Gael, and free in spirit as the 
mountain breezes — Highland maidens in their beauty and 



10 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

simplicity. But a further and unexpected blow fell on 
them in 1633 ; their father died in the April of that year ; 
and, while Jean was probably taken charge of by the 
family of her future husband, Anna, the especial object of 
our interest, passed under the care (as already stated) ot 
her cousin Lord Rothes, and removed to Leslie in Fife — 
not to revisit her native Highlands for nearly twenty years, 
and then only as a wanderer, almost a fugitive * 

It was while resident at Leslie that she became ac- 
quainted with her cousin Alexander Lindsay, already more 
than once mentioned as the eldest son of David Lord Bal- 
carres and Lady Sophia Seyton, and who bore the title 
during his father's lifetime of Master of Balcarres. He 
was one well qualified to attract her affection — very hand- 
some (judging by his portrait by Jamesone), with the fair 
complexion and auburn hair, and the general type of 
features, which run, with a constantly recurring tendency, in 
the different branches of the Lindsay family; while, in 
point of personal character, he was high-spirited but 
modest, accomplished and studious, and ^' brave enough to 
have been second in command to Montrose himself" (no 
slight eulogy from the enthusiastic biographer of that hero, 
Mr. Napier) — in a word, in all respects such that, in the 
words of a contemporary biography, " he had the respect 
and love of all that knew him." I know not whether their 
attachment was of gradual or rapid growth, but certain it is 
that in the autumn of 1639 Alexander was deeply in love 
with his beautiful cousin ; the regard became mutual ; and 
the result was their marriage in April 1640, the bridegroom 
being then in his twenty-second, and the bride (if I mistake 
not) in her eighteenth or nineteenth year. 

The entire correspondence that took place on the occa- 

* The death of Colin the Red, Earl of Seaforth, was commemo- 
rated by a beautiful lament, or coronach, still handed down traditionally 
by the family pipers, and for a copy of which I am indebted to the 
kindness of the present Seaforth. 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 1 

sion is preserved in our family archives, and it is not a 
little cift-ious to observe the lets and hindrances that im- 
peded the course of true love — how they arose and how 
they were surmounted — more than two hundred years ago. 
The whole of the friends on both sides warmly advocated 
the match with the exception of the lady's uncle, her 
fathers brother and successor as Earl of Seaforth, who op- 
posed it on the ground that he obtained no new feudal and 
family alHance by it. It seems that, being on a visit at 
Leslie and observing, as he thought, marks of attachment 
between his niece and the Master, he expressed his wish to 
take her back with him to the Highlands, which she de- 
clined, and then, on being asked for the grounds of her 
refusal, "she told that the Master had made love to her." 
Seaforth expressed his disassent very strongly, and even 
threatened that her provision, or fortune, as her father's 
daughter, might be disputed. John Lord Lindsay of the 
Byres, a kinsman and friend of both parties, was requested 
by Seaforth to interpose in his behalf and hint at this con- 
tingency ; but the Master at once declared that he was in- 
different to any such consideration, and wooed her for her 
own sweet self apart from all thought of fortune or alliance 
— to the effect of converting Lindsay into a warm advocate 
on his behalf with Seaforth. His cause was strongly sup- 
ported in the same quarter by the young Earl of Dunferm- 
line, by Lord Wintoun, and by himself — in letters so manly 
and straightforward that I have little doubt they contributed 
to w^in the reluctant chief's consent. I printed this cor- 
respondence long ago in the " Lives of the Lindsays," 
and I wish that the proper object and necessar^^ limit ot 
this memoir admitted of the insertion of the entire series, 
were it only to exhibit the cordiality, honesty, unselfishness, 
and practical common-sense of our Scottish gentlemen of 
the seventeenth century. I must however find room for 
two of the letters, selected as more especially witnessing to 
the prospects Lady Anna had to look forward to on entering 



12 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

her married life. The first is from her young lov^ to Sea- 
forth, urging his consent ; the second was addressed to 
Lady Anna herself, after her marriage, under her title of 
" Mistress of Balcarres," by her kind friend and guardian 
Lord Rothes. To Seaforth the Master writes as follows 
from Edinburgh on the i8th January, 1640 : — 

'' My Lord, 

" If I had known you had been to go out of this 
country so soon as you did, I would have spoken to your Lordship 
that which now I am forced to write ; for I can forbear no longer to 
tell your Lordship of my affection to your niece, and to be an earnest 
suitor to your Lordship for your consent to that wherein only I can 
think myself happy. The Earl of Rothes and my Lord Lindsay has 
shown me how averse your Lordship was from it, and in truth I was 
very sorry for it. They have both laboured, more nor I desired them, 
to divert me from it as a thing which would never have your Lord- 
ship's approbation, without which she could not have that portion 
which her father left her ; but I protest to your Lordship, as I have 
done to them, that my affection leads me beyond any consideration of 
that kind, for (God knows) it was not her means made me intend it, — 
and therefore, my Lord, since both by the law of God and man mar- 
riage should be free, and that she whom it concerns most nearly is 
pleased to think me worthy of her love, I am confident that your 
Lordship, who is in stead of a father to her, will not continue in your 
averseness from it, but even look to that which she, who has greatest 
interest, thinks to be for her weal \ for none but one's self can be judge 
of their own happiness. 

'* If it shall seem good to your Lordship to give me that favourable 
answer which I expect from your hands, since (as I hear) your Lord- 
ship is not to be in this country shortly, I hope ye will be pleased to 
entrust some of your friends here who may meet about the business 
with my father ; and I believe your Lordship shall get all just satis- 
faction in the conditions. I hope your Lordship shall never have 
cause to repent of your consent to this ; for, though you get no great 
new allya, yet your Lordship will keep that which you have had before, 
and gain one who is extreme desirous, and shall on all occasions be 
most willing to be 

*' Your Lordship's most humble servant, 

^ "A. Lyndesay." 

** At Edinbruch, 18 Jan. 1640." 

" I should think myself very unworthy," he adds in a sub- 
sequent letter on receiving Seaforth's consent, " if I were 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 13 

not more careful nor anybody else that she be well provided. 
I know my father will do all he can, and I hope your Lord- 
ship and all the rest of her friends shall see my care in this 
hereafter." 

Lord ' Rothes' letter is conceived in a more homely 
strain. It is dated " LesHe, 15 May, 1640," about three 
weeks after the marriage : — 

" My heart, 

" I have sent Mr. David Ayton with your compts since my 
intromission ; they are very clear and weill instructed, but truly your 
expence hath been over large this last year ; it will be about 3600 
merks, which indeed did discontent me when I looked on it. I hope 
ye will mend it in time coming ; and give me leave, as bound both by 
obligation and affection, to remember you that you must accommodate 
yourself to that estate whereof you are to be mistress, and be rather an 
example of parsimony nor a mover of it in that family. Your husband 
hath a very noble heart, and much larger than his fortune ; and, ex- 
cept you be both an example and an exhorter of him to be sparing, he 
will go over far, — both he, my Lord and Lady, loves you so weill that 
if ye incline to have those things that will beget expence, they will not 
be wanting although it should do them harm, they being all of a right 
noble disposition ; therefore a sparing disposition and practice on your 
part will not only benefit you in so far as concerns your own personal 
expence, but it will make your husband's expence and your good- 
sister's* the less also ; for, your and their expence being all to come out 
of one purse, what is spent will spend to you, and what is spared is to 
your behoof, for I hope your good-father and good-mother f will turn all 
they have to the behoof of your husband and you, except the provision 
of their other children, and the more will be spared that your personal 
expences be little, — therefore go veiy plain in your clothes, and play 
very little, and seek God heartily, who can alone make your life con- 
tented here, and give you that chief content, the hope of happiness here- 
after. The Lord bless you ! 

* ' I am your faithful friend and servant, 

" Rothes." 

In a letter written at the same time to her husband, the 
Master, Lord Rothes enters more fully into the question of 

* That is, sister-in-law's. This was the ]\Iaster's sister, Sophia 
Lindsay, then just past sixteen, afterwards the wife of Sir Robert 
Moray. 

T Father-in-law and mother-in-law. 



14 Me^noir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

the accounts, giving him a sHght warning that he must look 
after his wife's expenditure, she being " a httle wilful in the 
way of her expences, and my wife could not so weill look to 
her, being infirm ; but I hope in God," he adds, "' she shall 
prove ane good wise woman, and sparing eneuch. And ye 
must even conform yourself to your estate." The good- 
natured Rothes has erased the slight reflection upon herwilful- 
ness and extravagance, but it maybe resuscitated here without 
any prejudice to her memory, as the fault, such as it was, 
was not long in vanishing away. A feminine taste for per- 
sonal adornment and a love of having objects of grace 
and beauty around her lay, I suspect, at the bottom of it. 
It was balanced by a thousand noble qualities under the in- 
fluence of which the marriage could not but turn out a happy 
one. Lady Anna proved a loving wife, a kind and judicious 
mother ; and, although of the '' mild nature and sweet dis- 
position" praised by David Lord Balcarres in one of the 
letters of the correspondence, was (as he also afiirms) " wise 
withal," and capable, as events afterwards proved, of heroic 
firmness and undaunted resolution. 

The engraving at the commencement of this volume, 
taken from a picture preserved at Brahan Castle, will give 
some idea of the personal appearance of Lady Anna, al- 
though at a period some years later than that of her 
marriage. It must have been very attractive. Dark 
brown hair, large brown eyes, a lively and animated ex- 
pression, and a general regard full of force tempered by 
sweetness, were her characteristics. The picture seems to 
have been painted in Holland during the usurpation. 

The lands of Wester Pitcorthie and those of Balmakin 
and Balbuthie, dependencies of the barony of Balcarres, 
were assigned to Lady Anna as her jointure, as well as the 
'^ East Lodging" and adjacent buildings ^^ on the East side 
of the clois " or '' clausura " (cloister, or court) " of Bal- 
carres, on baith sides of the East gate, with free ishe (exit) 
and entry thereto," — such is the description in the contract 



Memoir of Lady A7ina Mackenzie, i s 

of marriage and the " instrument of seisin " by which she 
was given feudal possession : of it. The "Lodging" in 
question served in many subsequent generations the same 
purpose, and was commonly known by the name of the 
'^ Dowager's" or/^ Dower House." 

The marriage was followed in the ensuing spring — in 
March 1641 — by the death of Lady Anna's father-in-law, 
David Lord Balcarres, and the succession of her husband 
to the estates and representation of his branch of the 
Lindsays. His uncle Lord Lauderdale, then at Whitehall, 
wTOte to him on the occasion in terms of kindness and 
approbation which must have gratified him deeply, and his 
wife no less : — 

" My honourable Lord, 

" The death of my noble lord, your father, I may justly say, 
was als grievous to me as to any other soever next to my sister and her 
children, not only for the loss which I perceive now, and will feel more 
sensibly when it shall please God to bring me home, of so worthy and 
kind a brother, but even for the want which the public will sustain of 
one of so great worth, whose service might have been so useful both to 
the King and State. But one thing doth comfort us all, who had so 
near interest in him, that it hath pleased God to bless him with a son 
of such abilities as God hath endued your Lordship with ; who, I am 
confident, shall succeed no less to his virtues than to his inheritance, so 
that it may be truly said, ' Mortuus est pater, sed quasi non mortuus, 
quia filium similem reliquit sibi.' 

"This is all I can remember," he proceeds, after dwelling on some 
family arrangements, "concerning this purpose, — if any other thing 
occur to me, I shall make mention of it in that which I write to my 
good lady your mother, in whose letter I cannot tell you how far it 
rejoiced me to read what contentment and comfort she hath in your 
Lordship. Go on, my noble Lord, in that way of respect to so worthy 
a mother, and God no doubt will bless you, and your friends will 
honour you, and none more than I — who, albeit I can be very little 
useful to any, yet, as I am, none shall have more power nor yourself 
to command 

" Your most affectionate uncle and servant, 

" Lauderdaill." 

Lord and Lady Balcarres had but short benefit from 
the counsel and friendship of this good and able man. He 



1 6 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

died four years afterwards of grief at the miseries of his 
country, lamented by the poet Drummond of Hawthornden 
as " the last 

" Of those rare worthies who adorn'd our North, 

And shm'd like constellations, . . . 

Second in virtue's theatre to none. 
But, finding all eccentric in our times, 

Religion into superstition turn'd, 

Justice silenc'd, exiled, or inurn'd. 
Truth, faith, and charity reputed crimes. 
The young men destinate by sword to fall. 

And trophies of their country's spoils to rear, 
Strange laws the ag'd and prudent to appal. 

And forc'd sad yokes of tyranny to bear, 
And for nor great nor virtuous minds a room — 
Disdaining life, thou shroud'st thee in thy tomb ! " 

At the very moment, indeed, when the marriage-bells 
were welcoming the young Master a.nd his bride to their 
home at Balcarres, the tocsin was sounding a deeper note 
throughout the land, summoning noble and simple, rich and 
poor, to the great war of opinions, political and religious, 
which, with brief intermissions during the alternations of 
supremacy, convulsed society and steeped the land in the 
blood of her best and bravest till near the close of the 
century. 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE history of Scotland since the Reformation may be 
said to turn upon one fundamental question, the 
relationship between the Kirk, or Church, and the Civil 
Power, or State. In England the ancient Catholic Church, 
monarchical in principle, was retained, after the corruptions 
attached to it in the course of ages had been w^ashed away j 
and had the wiser views of Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, 
Scotland's proto-reformer (the " Davie Lindsay " of popular 
tradition), been carried out as sketched in his writings, the 
like advantage would have been secured to the Northern 
kingdom. But the Roman Cathohc Church in Scotland, as 
represented by its clergy and bishops, was hopelessly cor- 
rupt and irreformable, and the reaction was proportionately 
violent in the Protestant direction. A new church, modelled 
on that of Calvin at Geneva, and democratic (or rather 
theocratic) in its system, was set up in its place under the 
influence of John Knox, and adopted as the church of the 
nation. It w^as discovered however ere many years had 
passed that the doctrines of the Kirk tended to the estab- 
lishment of an absolute despotism over the Civil Government 
of the realm ; and the consequent evils rose to such a 
height that not only James VI. and his wisest lay advisers 
but the more moderate party in the Kirk itself came to the 
conclusion that the introduction of a limited Episcopal 
government, as a controlling and moderating influence, was 
necessary in order to enable Church and State to co-exist 
and work together, and to preserve the Church itself from 
being torn to pieces through the ungovernable violence of 
its leaders. The devising and carrying through the measures 

c 



1 8 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

which introduced this reform was the last public act (as I 
beheve it had been the cherished purpose) of Secretary . 
Lindsay's life. But it was not through his, or any mere 
state influence only, but by the concurring and deliberate 
action of the General Assembly itself, convened on an 
unusually comprehensive scale in 1597, and afterwards in 
1600, that the introduction into Parhament of certain chosen 
Commissioners of the Kirk under the legal style and in the 
place of the ancient prelates was effected. Great opposition 
was of course offered and much discontent manifested 
against the innovation, but chiefly among the more violent 
clergy headed by the bigoted, irascible, but lion-hearted, 
learned, and witty Andrew Melville. The result neverthe- 
less gradually approved itself beneficial; the laity felt 
relieved from a grievous burden; the balance of power 
between Church and State was restored ; disorders were 
quelled, and piety, as a rule, supplanted controversy in the 
Church; and this better influence lasted during the re- 
mainder of the lives of the men then and thus promoted. 
Regular episcopal ordination was communicated to the 
bishops in 16 10; and, had those at the helm knoAvn where 
to stop — had this reformation or modification in a Catholic 
and Apostolic sense of the sterner Presbyterianism of 1560 
been left to the legitimate action of time and experience — 
I have little doubt but that the churches of Scotland and 
England would have voluntarily coalesced before the end 
of the century, to the fulfilment, in great measure, of 
'' Davie Lindsay's " patriotic aspiration — 

*' Habitare fratres in unum 
Is a blissful thing ; 
One God, One Faith, One Baptism pure, 
One Law, One Land, One King ! " 

But the impatience of a younger and more ardent gene- 
ration, as represented by Sir David's namesake, the Bishop 
of Brechin and (afterwards) of Edinburgh, and the over- 
anxiety of James I. and Charles I. to effect this assimilation. 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 19 

defeated .the object they had in view. The simpHcity of 
Scottish worship was shocked and the national sense of in- 
dependence wounded by the successive introduction, year, 
after year, of innovations, chiefly ceremonial, innocent and 
in some cases praiseworthy in themselves, but which were 
looked upon as approximations to Popery, and the enforce- 
ment of which by the King's sole authority, exercised 
through the Court of High Commission, was distinctly in 
violation of the liberties of Scotland. The coping-stone 
was laid on the ecclesiastical edifice by the imposition in 
1637 of the famous "Service-Book," a liturgy nearly the 
same as that of England, but which was misconceived of as 
still more closely approximative to the Roman mass-book, 
and the acceptance of which was (as in previous cases) 
prescribed by the authority of the sovereign alone, apart 
from the consent of the Kirk or the nation. It was on 
these two points that the national aversion to it was mainly 
grounded ; for, although the more zealous spirits among the 
clergy disdained the use of any but extemporary addresses 
to the Almighty, the use of formal and printed prayers, in 
a word, of a Service-book or Liturgy, the " Book of Com- 
mon Order," as promulgated at Geneva, was a matter of 
general prescription and observance in the times of Knox 
and Melville. The truth was that the imposition of the 
Service-Book of 1637 was the last drop in the full cup, the 
last straw on the camel's back. The national patience, or 
rather impatience, boiled over ; and the entire ecclesiastical 
structure, slowly and painfully upreared during so many 
years, toppled down in ruin and confusion. It was thus 
through an aggression, for such it was, upon their religious 
liberties that the Scots were induced to rise in arms against 
Charles I. ; while in England, as is well known, the primary 
causes of complaint were the unconstitutional acts of the 
Crown in civil matters. In either country the question at 
issue was whether, the constitution of the Kirk being such 
as it was as finally settled by the General Assemblies of 



2 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

1597 and 1600, and the civil constitution of England being 
what it was as fixed or implied by the old laws and customs 
of the realm, the sovereign had a right, of his own supreme 
authority, to supersede and overthrow them. Alexander 
Master of Balcarres and his wife, although born, baptized, 
and bred under the Episcopal regime, and with all their 
hereditary prepossessions in favour of that form of eccle- 
siastical polity, thought he had not, and acted accordingly ; 
and it is in order to prepare the reader for appreciating 
their conduct under these circumstances that I have sub- 
mitted the preceding historical details. 

The immediate effect of the introduction of the Service- 
Book was the promulgation of a " Solemn League and 
Covenant '' in defence of the civil and religious liberties of 
Scotland, and the deposition of the Bishops and abolition of 
prelacy by an act of the General Assembly in December 
1638. This was followed by various miHtary movements 
and private negotiations, the result of which was that King 
Charles yielded the substance of the demands of the 
Covenanters and withdrew the Service-Book. David Lord 
Balcarres, his son the Master of Balcarres, Rothes, Lindsay 
of the Byres, Lauderdale, the Earl (afterwards the great 
Marquis) of Montrose, and others innumerable, joined this 
national league ; and it was only after the short-lived re- 
conciliation with the King came to an end that parties 
finally developed themselves in the manner so familiar to 
us in history. From that time forward till the year 1648 
two such parties divided Scotland, — on the one hand the 
Covenanters, warmly attached to royalty, but equally so 
to the Kirk, asserting national and personal rights in limi- 
tation of arbitrary authority, and vindicating, in an inchoate 
or tentative way, the principles now understood as those of 
Constitutional Government; on the other, the Cavaliers, 
who, dreading the tendency of the times towards democracy 
and licence in Church and State, maintained the duty of 
unconditional obedience to the Crown, and stood up for 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 2 1 

Episcopacy and the Royal Supremacy against Presby- 
terianism. The Covenanters, in a word, vindicated the 
principle of Liberty, the Cavaliers that of Order — funda- 
mental principles, co-equally important to the social and 
political life of nations, and on the reconciliation and har- 
mony of which through mutual concession, and the pre- 
servation of the balance afterwards, the stability and progress 
of states depends. Each of these great parties from time 
to time ran into extravagance and, as a necessary con- 
sequence, committed cruel injustice ; but both, judged by 
their nobler members, were equally sincere and patriotic. 
It must not, of course, be supposed, that while parties were 
thus clearly defined throughout this period, the personages 
who composed them were not constantly undergoing modi- 
fying influences from the march of the times and the lessons 
of experience. Many who ultimately became Cavaliers, 
such as Montrose himself, were originally supporters of the 
Covenant, and only abandoned that cause when they per- 
ceived that their friends were going too far, and that 
monarchy and constitutional government were tending to 
ruin through the growing preponderance of the democratic 
element. Some took the step earlier, some later, as the en- 
thusiasm of youth, the experience of maturity, or the in- 
tuitive foresight of genius prompted ; but all in fact, except 
the extreme zealots and fanatics of the Covenanting party, 
ranged themselves at last on that side and principle of 
Order which, in the course of time and in the progress of 
events, became ultimately the cause of the Constitution. 

The struggle between Charles I. and the English Par- 
liament was marked by the successive surrender by the 
former of every questionable encroachment on the public 
liberty, the retractation of every step in excess of the pre- 
rogative which had given just offence to the constitution, 
till by the spring of 1642 the tables had become turned, and, 
in the words of the great constitutional and Whig historian 
Hallam, '^ law, justice, and moderation, once ranged against" 



2 2 Me^noir of Lady Amia Mackenzie, 

the King, " had," subsequently to the early months of the 
Long Parhament, ^' gone over to his banner," — and so 
absolutely so that, "it may be said," he adds, "with not 
greater severity than truth, that scarcely two or three public 
acts of justice, humanity, or generosity, and very few of 
political wisdom or courage, are recorded of them from 
their quarrel with the King to their expulsion by Crom- 
well." The war that broke out in England in 1642 was 
thus one essentially of defence on the part of Charles 
against those who from vindicators had become the sub- 
verters of the constitution. In Scotland, on the other 
hand, the grounds of just complaint remained unsatisfied 
for a prolonged period. In 1641 we find Montrose and 
Napier, still ranking among the Covenanters, addressing 
the King in a letter in which they attribute " the cause of 
these troubles " to "a fear and apprehension, not without 
some reason," on the part of the Scottish nation, " of 
changes in religion, and that superstitious worship shall 
be brought in upon it, and therewith all their laws in- 
fringed and their liberties invaded. Free them, Sir," they 
say, " from this fear, as you are free from any such thoughts, 
and undoubtedly ye shall thereby settle that state in a firm 
obedience to your Majesty in all time coming. They have 
no other end but to preserve their religion in purity and 
their liberties entire." But these remonstrances were of no 
avail, and it was not till 1647 that Charles finally consented 
to forego Episcopacy and recognise the Kirk under her 
ancient limits. During these six years the name of Lady 
Anna's husband. Lord Balcarres, figures constantly in the 
chronicles of the time as fighting gallantly on the Cove- 
nanting side at Marston-moor, at Alford, and elsewhere, at 
the head of his regiment of horse, "the strongest regiment" 
(as it is described) " in the kingdom j" while the defeat 
of the Covenanters at Kilsyth, where he commanded the 
cavalry, in 1645, is equally ascribed to neglect of his warn- 
ing voice in support of the better military judgment of 



Me7noir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 23 

General Baillie, overruledj as the latter was, by that curse 
of commanders, a Committee. 

The Cavalier or purely royalist cause was extinguished 
in Scotland after the defeat at Philiphaugh, on the 13 th 
September 1645, and the final break-up of the royalist 
army under its three chiefs, Montrose, Ludovic '' the Loyal 
Earl" of Crawford, and Sir John Urr}^, on the 31st July 
1646. Crawford repaired to Ireland and organised a most 
promising scheme of invasion from that quarter, of which 
Montrose was to take the leadership, but the Queen's 
advisers at Paris threw cold water upon it, and it came 
to nothing. But the King's loss was not the Covenanters' 
gain. A star, hostile to both influences, was gaining the 
ascendant. Order and Liberty, having failed to understand 
each other, were to be superseded by civil and religious an- 
archy in its necessary incarnation, Military Despotism. 

The position of matters in the autumn of 1646 stood 
thus : — The Parliaments in both kingdoms, the representa- 
tives of the Presbyterian interest and, in Scotland at least, 
of the national aspiration for limited monarchy and consti- 
tutional government, were losing ground, — their chief sup- 
port was the Scottish Covenanting army, then quartered in 
the North of England. The English army, on the other 
hand, headed by Cromwell, Ireton, and other zealots. Inde- 
pendents or Puritans in religion and wild for democracy, 
was increasing daily in power and audacity ; and the object 
of the leaders of the English Parliament was to disband it 
as soon as possible, before its arms could be directed against 
themselves. The King, cooped up in Oxford, his army 
ruined, his partisans reduced to despair, had but a choice 
of evils, and determined to throw himself into the arms of 
the Presbyterians as less dangerous than the Independents 
through their attachment to monarchy. He fled from 
Oxford in disguise, and delivered himself up to the Scottish 
army, then pressing the siege of Newark. The Scots saw 
their advantage and determined to make the most of it, with 



24 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

the view of securing the great objects of their quarrel and 
crushing the Independents. On the first rumour of the 
King's intention, and before his actual arrival was ascer- 
tained, they despatched Lord Balcarres to the army at 
Newark with offers to the King of defence and assistance on 
the condition diat he should recognise and secure their 
liberties, civil and religious, in termis of the Covenant. 
This, however, he refused. The Duke of Hamilton and his 
brother-in-law Lord Lindsay of the Byres (now known as 
Earl of Crawford-Lindsay after the forfeiture of Earl Ludovic, 
and who had been for some years Lord High Treasurer and 
President of the Parliament), were sent specially to urge his 
compliance, but their mission was equally unavailing ; and 
the negotiation having thus failed, Charles was surrendered 
by the Scottish army, under orders from Edinburgh, to the 
English Parliament, notwithstanding Crawford-Lindsay's and 
Balcarres' strong opposition in the Parliament at Edin- 
burgh, where, however, the bigoted Presbyterians, the ex 
treme party headed by the Earl (afterwards Marquis) of 
Argyll, were then predominant. Cromwell immediately 
marched to London, expelled the Presbyterian members of 
the English Parliament, substituted Independents in their 
place, committed the King to prison, and assumed the 
government. Charles's situation thus became desperate, 
and in a secret interview with the Scottish commissioners 
he consented to confirm the Covenant, recognise Presby- 
terianism on a probation (at least) of three years, and unite 
cordially with the Scots for the extirpation of the " sec- 
taries " or Independents, — thus acquiescing, alas ! too late, 
in that principle of constitutional government which had 
been at issue between himself and his Scottish subjects 
since the year 1638. Doubts might have been entertained 
as to his sincerity, but it was not a moment for hesitation ; 
their king, a Stuart and a Scotsman, stood before their eyes, 
penitent and in peril ; and, as is the wont of the Scottish 
people, always " perfervid " and impassioned whether for 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 25 

good or evil, they forgot all secondary considerations in the 
determination to rescue him. Their plans were rapidly 
combined, and among other arrangements Lord Balcarres 
was appointed provisionally, by a grant under the sign- 
manual of Charles I., " at our Court at Woburn, 20th July 
1647," to that important trust, the government of the Castle 
of Edinburgh. 

It remained however to be seen whether the spirit of 
1638 remained unchanged, and whether, after nine years 
of unchecked power, the Kirk and her ministers would be 
satisfied with anything short of pure theocracy. The result 
proved that the Kirk had become radical to the core, and 
the news of the treaty with the King no sooner reached 
Scotland than the Covenanters spht into two parties, the 
one including the great mass of the nation, moderate men, 
headed by the Treasurer Crawford-Lindsay, the Duke of 
Hamilton, and Balcarres, professing constitutional royalism, 
and ultimately called Resolutioners ; the other composed 
of the more fanatic Presbyterians, led by Argyll, a small 
but compact body, who assumed an immediate attitude of 
distinct and formidable opposition, and were subsequently dis- 
tinguished by the name of Remonstrators or Protesters. 

The formation of an ^^ Engagement," or League, for the 
King's rescue followed, and the nation, with the exception 
of Argyll and the Protesters, rose as one man in his de- 
fence. The Duke of Hamilton, at the head of an army of 
fourteen thousand men, marched for England ; but he was 
incompetent for such a command j he was defeated at 
Preston oii the 20th August 1648 ; his army fell to pieces; 
and he himself was taken prisoner and beheaded some 
months afterwards. The result was the complete depres- 
sion for the time of the constitutional party in Scotland, and 
the succession of Argyll and the Protesters to the dominant 
rule. Crawford-Lindsay was deprived of his offices of High 
Treasurer, President of the Estates, and others, and excluded 
from Parliament. Balcarres retired to Fife, and awaited 



2 6 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

the opportunity of usefulness. A young man — a gallant 
soldier rather than a politician — ^he had been till recently a 
firm adherent to Argyll and the Kirk, an implicit believer in 
the purity of their patriotism ; but events had opened his 
eyes, and the Rubicon of what he conceived to be lawful 
resistance once crossed, he broke with them for ever. 
Hitherto, in fact, he had felt and acted in the spirit and 
after the example of the friends of his youth — of his father, 
of Rothes, and of the good Lord Lauderdale — all of them 
now passed away from the scene ; he took this new step 
as the act of his deliberate manhood and mature judgment, 
being then on the point of entering his thirtieth year. 

In England the King was brought to trial before his own 
subjects by Cromwell and the Independents, condemned 
as a traitor, and executed at Whitehall on the 30th January 
1649, meeting death with the constancy of a hero and the 
charity of a saint ; and his memory was long and deservedly 
honoured in the Church of England and by Englishmen 
generally as that of " King Charles the Martyr." A " martyr '^ 
he assuredly was, but in a cause the reverse of that which 
is usually associated with his memory — a '^ martyr " for 
Liberty. This is no paradox, but a simple historical fact. 
His political offences against the English constitution had 
long ago — as far back as 1642, according to the dispas- 
sionate Hallam — been salved and absolved through the 
abandonment of the overweening pretensions of an ill- 
defined prerogative. From that time forward the struggle 
in England was, in a broad sense, between Democracy and 
Absolutism on the one hand, as represented by Cromwell 
and the Independents, and Constitutional Government and 
Freedom on the other, as represented by Charles. After a 
gallant struggle in the field, and a period of captivity borne 
with exemplary patience, Charles died at his post in defence 
of principles and liberties which are now the common 
heritage and boast of every Briton. 

The news of this tragical event was received with horror 



M.emoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 27 

and indignation in Scotland, and Argyll and the Protesters 
found it necessary to identify themselves with the pubUc 
sentiment, and proclaim Prince Charles, then a youth of 
nineteen, King of Scotland. They sent over messengers in- 
viting him to Scotland, but he had hardly arrived when 
Cromwell demanded that the republican government already 
established in England should be extended over Scotland 
likewise. This was peremptorily refused ; Argyll was de- 
feated by Cromwell at Dunbar ; and the Resolutioners, or 
constitutionahsts, Crawford-Lindsay, Balcarres, and their 
friends, again came into power, in association or coalition 
with Argyll, but for a time having the upper hand. They 
crowned Prince Charles at Scone on the ist January 1651, 
Argyll investing him with the crown and Crawford with the 
sceptre, according to ancient privilege, but symbolically, it 
might have been suggested, of this transient reconciliation. 
Balcarres was on this occasion created an Earl, Secretary of 
State, and hereditary governor of Edinburgh Castle, and was 
appointed High Commissioner to the General Assembly of 
the Kirk which met at St. Andrews in July, where he man- 
aged matters so well " that that Assembly " (we are told) 
'' passed more acts in favour, and rose better satisfied with 
the King and Crown than any that had preceded in many 
years before," — a success very distasteful to the Protesters, 
who described its proceedings, in the energetic phraseology 
of the times, as a " ripping up of the bowels of their mother 
Church." During all these years the subject of this memoir, 
the Countess Anna, resided, I believe, constantly at Bal- 
carres ; and the only incident relating to her that I need 
notice is a visit that King Charles paid her there on the 
2 2d February 165 1, when "Lord Balcarres," as a Fife- 
shire chronicler reports, " gave his Majesty a banquet at his 
house, where he stayed some two hours, and visited his lady, 
that then lay in." The child then born was her eldest 
son, who received the name of Charles, the king standing 
his godfather. He survived his father Earl Alexander, 



2 8 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

but died a boy of twelve years old, as I shall hereafter 
mention. 

Meanwhile, the advance of Cromwell's army having 
rendered the situation of the royalists one of imminent 
danger, the King took the bold resolution of changing the 
scene of warfare by a direct march into England, where he 
hoped to raise his Cavalier friends, and gain strength before 
the rebels could overtake him. He started accordingly, 
leaving Crawford-Lindsay and Balcarres, together with the 
Lords Marischal and Glencairn, as a Committee of Estates, 
in charge of his affairs in Scotland. Crawford-Lindsay and 
Marischal were almost immediately afterwards surprised by 
Monk and sent prisoners to England, where Crawford- 
Lindsay was confined in the Tower of London and at 
Windsor Castle for nine years ; but Balcarres reached the 
Highlands, where he possessed great power through his 
alHance with the house of Seaforth and his friendship with 
Huntly and the clans, and where he assumed the command 
of the royalists under the King's commission. 

Money was however wanting. Scotland, never since 
the thirteenth century a rich country, was in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries decidedly poor; and, although 
many of her noble families were comparatively well off, 
their revenues paid in kind amply sufficing for the mainte- 
nance of a large following and a generous hospitality, the 
public exchequer was but scantily filled with available 
specie. Lord Balcarres had already, in 1643, incurred 
expenses to the amount of nearly twenty thousand marks in 
raising and equipping his regiment of horse, for all, or the 
greater part of which, although allowed by the Committee 
of Estates, I believe he received no payment ; and he had 
further, in 1644, made himself responsible for a further sum 
of five hundred pounds sterhng in the pubhc service, which, 
as voluntarily incurred, the Committee, it appears, ignored, 
although Balcarres submitted the claim to their consideration 
on the modest ground that his estate was " not well able 



Memoir of Lady Anna Macke^izie. 29 

to bear", such burdens. Troops, not of his own regiment, 
had from time to time been quartered on his lands and 
tenants, to their great impoverishment ; and for this too 
there was httle prospect of reimbursement. Early in the pre- 
sent year, he had sold his plate, which was unusually valuable 
for a Scottish baron of that day, for two thousand pounds 
sterling, in order to defray the expenses of the General As- 
sembly, but this had all been expended ; and he now mort- 
gaged his estates to the extent of six thousand pounds more, 
w^hich he apphed to advancing the King's interests in the north 
during the autumn campaign of 165 1 and the subsequent one 
of 1653-4 — sums of no small moment in those days in Scot- 
land, and which remained a debt till extinguished by the 
Countess Anna and by Earl Colin his son, partly out of 
Colin's first wife's fortune, subsequently to the Restoration. 
All these items, together with the payment of the dowries 
of his sisters and the provision for his two brothers, weighed 
heavily on Earl Alexander and his wife, and the result was 
(for the exigencies of biography demand notice of what 
passes behind the scenes as well as before the public eye) 
that the estate of Balcarres, which in 1639 and at the time 
of David Lord Balcarres' death, had been entirely free, 
was by 1651-2 much embarrassed. Meanwhile the do\\Ty 
of Lady Balcarres and other arrears due to her since 1637, 
amounting to twenty thousand and some hundred pounds 
Scots, had never up to that time been paid, either principal 
or interest. Nor was it till long after Earl Alexander's 
death that the arrears were made up and the long account 
finally settled. A touching illustration of the straits to 
which they were reduced presents itself in a testamentary 
paper or codicil written a year or two afterwards on the 
point (apparently) of their departure for France, in which 
Lord Balcarres recites that " considering that Lady Anna 
Mackenzie, my dearest spouse, hath out of her affection to 
me and for satisfying of my urgent debts, quit and sold her 
jewels and womanly ^furniture, belonging to herself allanerly 



30 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

(only) by the law of this kingdom," he therefore gives and 
bequeathes to her his library of books, which he had pre- 
viously entailed on his heirs-male, amounting in value to six 
thousand marks, and all his household furniture, subject to 
redemption by his heirs hereafter at the above value, but 
otherwise to be her own in replacement of what she had so 
generously parted with for his rehef. Many of these jewels 
must have had a peculiar value to her as bequeathed to her 
by her mother, who had left when dying her jewels and 
personal '' bravery " in Lord Seaforth's charge, to be divided 
between her and her sister Jean, when grown up. Others 
doubtless had been purchases of her own, in the early days 
when her disbursements had been the subject of her guar- 
dian Rothes' remonstrance. Never, I would add, throughout 
all the documents concerning these private affairs, is a word 
to be found of complaint at sacrifices and circumstances 
which the generous spirits of the time submitted to as a 
matter of course, entailed upon them by loyalty and patriot- 
ism ; they bled as freely in purse as in person for their 
King's and country's service j and too often in those days 
the family as well as its representative sank for ever under 
the exhaustion. I do not think it would be too much to 
say that, for every thirty families that flourished in compara- 
tive affluence at the beginning of the troubles, scarcely five 
survived the century. These details are not irrelevant to 
the subject of this narrative, for many years of the Countess 
Anna's subsequent life were spent in redeeming the ruin in 
which the Balcarres family were for the time involved 
through the great Civil War of the seventeenth century. 

King Charles, in the meanwhile, advanced without 
opposition to Worcester, where Cromwell, retracing his 
steps from Scotland, overtook and defeated him on the 3d 
September 165 1. He escaped to the Continent after a 
series of romantic adventures, and resided for several years 
at Paris and Cologne, few expecting that he would ever 
regain " his fathers' chair." The ^' King of Scots " was the 



Memoir of Lady Anna Macke7izic, 3 1 

usual title given him on the Continent during his years of 
expatriation. 

All hope having vanished, Balcarres capitulated with 
the English, under favourable conditions, at Forres, on the 
3d December 165 1, and disbanded his followers. He 
retired to Balcarres, and on the 8th November 1652 settled 
with his family at St. Andrews, from whence he kept up a 
correspondence with his exiled sovereign. They lived in 
the house of a Mr. John Lepar, formerly provost of the burgh. 
The Countess Anna's second son Colin, afterwards third 
Earl of Balcarres, was born, I believe, during this residence 
under the shadow of the old cathedral towers, or what then 
remained of them, once the architectural glory of Scotland. 

When Monk, the English general, was recalled from Scot- 
land, in 1653, Lord Balcarres, although suffering at the 
time from severe illness, again took arms in the Highlands, 
and, in concert with Athol, Seaforth, Lorn (the eldest son 
of the Marquis of Argyll), and the principal Highland 
chiefs, under the Earl of Glencairn as commander-in-chief, 
made a last unavaiHng attempt to uphold the royal cause 
against Cromwell. They were joined by Lord Balcarres' 
dear friend and brother-in-law (his sister Sophia's husband) 
Sir Robert Moray, already mentioned, and w^hom Bishop 
Burnet describes as '^the most universally beloved and 
esteemed by men of all sides and sorts of any man I have 
ever known in my whole life." All was at first enthusiasm; 
but the incompetence of Glencairn ruined the enterprise. 
His wish w^as to invade the low country and emulate the 
career of Montrose. Balcarres, with wiser foresight, urged 
their remaining in their fastnesses until they should see what 
assistance the King could '^ procure them from beyond sea 
of men, money, and arms ; whereas, if they went out of 
those fast-grounds, they could not hope to stand before such 
a veteran and well-disciplined army as Monk had, and, if 
they met with the least check, their tumultuary army would 
soon melt away." 



32 Memoir of Lady Anna Macke^izie, 

At this critical moment the King, in France, perplexed 
with contradictory reports and desiring Lord Balcarres' 
advice how to act, wrote to him, desiring him to repair to 
him for that purpose with all possible speed ; " which letter," 
says a contemporary memoir, ^' though <he received in the 
deep of winter and in the most remote part of all that 
kingdom, and having no other possible way to get to " his 
Majesty ''but through a tract of the enemies' country of 
above four or five hundred miles, he consulted as little the 
difficulties and dangers as he had done before, but rendered 
immediate obedience, and put himself and his dear lady 
(whose virtue and kindness would never abandon him in 
his greatest extremity) both in disguise, and, with the often 
perils of their lives, at last by God's providence arrived safely 
in France, where having with great integrity on his own 
and as great satisfaction on the King's part given his Ma- 
jesty a perfect account," and enforced on him the necessity 
of sending over some military man to whom the confederated 
chiefs would submit more willingly than to one of their own 
order, Middleton was despatched to Scotland. 

Sir Robert Moray accompanied his brother and sister- 
in-law — his " Gossip " and " Cummer," as they are called 
in his familiar letters — on their journey from the Highlands 
to Paris ; and Lord Balcarres delivered to the King at the 
Palais Royal, in May 1654, a letter signed by the Earl of 
Seaforth, Lord Lorn, the famous Evan Dhu, or Black Sir 
Evan Cameron of Lochiel ; Roderick Macleod, surnamed 
" the Witty," chief of the Macleods of Skye ; Sir Roderick 
of Scallascarr, or TaUsker, Macleod's uncle, and the leader 
of the clan during his nephew's minority ; Macleod of 
Rasay ; " Daniel " (or Donald) Maclean, the uncle of Sir 
Hector of Duart, the young hero who had fallen recently 
at Inverkeithing ; the Macleans of Coll and Ardgour ; 
and the chiefs of Mackinnon and Macnachton, — testifying 
to his own and Sir Robert's merits, and requesting the 
King to give implicit credit to whatever they might report 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 33 

and represent in relation to the royal cause and public 
service. 

Balcarres, whose counsels always varied with the occa- 
sion — prudent and cautious when supporting Baillie and 
controlling Glencairn, bold and daring when an emergency 
like the present demanded it — strongly urged on the King 
the expediency of sailing for the Highlands and taking com- 
mand of the clans in person, on the principle afterwards 
adopted by Prince Charles Edward, the "Young Chevaher," 
in 1745. He spoke with authority — with the voice of the 
thousands whose hearts and lives were in the hand of the 
potent chiefs above enumerated ; while he was supported 
at the same time by letters addressed to the King through 
private channels from the Earl of Lauderdale, Crawford- 
Lindsay, and the other Scottish prisoners in England, all 
unanimously offering the same advice. But the opportunity 
thus presented by Lord Balcarres in 1654 shared the fate 
of the similar scheme organised by Ludovic Earl of Craw- 
ford, in conjunction with the Highland and Irish chiefs, in 
1646, — the coolness or timidity of Queen Henrietta Maria 
and Lord Jermyn defeated the earher, and the irresolution 
and love of ease of Charles the latter project, — Charles 
hesitated till it was too late j and the utter defeat of Middle- 
ton, the ruin of the royal cause in Scotland, and the triumph 
of democracy throughout Great Britain, account for our 
hearing no more of it. 

Balcarres's share in this last struggle against Cromwell 
was punished by the sequestration of his estates in Scotland 
on the 4th of Januar}^ 1654. But what doubtless was the 
bitterest element in his wife's and his own cup of suffering 
at this time — and none but a mother can tell what its 
bitterness must have been to a mother's heart — was the 
parting from their children, or, I should rather say, from their 
two sons, Charles and Colin, mere infants, whom they were 
obliged to leave behind them on undertaking their adven- 
turous and perilous journey through the Lowlands of Scot- 



34 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

land and England to France. I do not know what had 
become of them during the campaign in the Highlands, but 
they must either have been left at Balcarres at its com- 
mencement (the more probable contingency), or been sent 
thither when their parents and Sir Robert Moray started for 
the Continent. They resided at Balcarres henceforward, 
ten pounds a year being allowed for their maintenance out 
of the sequestrated estate of their father; and even this 
pittance was not regularly paid, — four years' arrears of it 
(for 1654, 1655, 1656, and 1657), amounting to forty 
pounds sterling, were paid in May 1658; and I find no 
record of the remainder subsequently due having been 
accounted for. They were however carefully looked after, 
among an attached vassalage, and with a most kind and 
judicious friend and supervisor in Mr. David Forret, minister 
of Kilconquhar, (the recipient for their use of the forty 
pounds just mentioned,) who had been Lord Balcarres's 
'' pedagogue," or private tutor, at home, at the grammar 
school at Haddington, and at the University of St. Andrews, 
and whom Lord Balcarres had afterwards presented (in 
1646) to the living of the parish in which Balcarres is 
situated. There then, in the careless happiness of child- 
hood, like wild flowers on the Craig of Balcarres, the httle 
ones lived and throve in the ^^ caller air " of the north, 
equally heedless of the thunders of political revolution 
which hurtled in the air around during the first years of 
their solitude, and of the dead calm of military despotism 
which settled down on the land after the storm had passed 
by and the pulse of liberty had ceased to be perceptible in 
Scotland. Lord Balcarres, their father, never saw them 
again, and their mother not till the Restoration. 

Lord Balcarres continued for some years with the King. 
His noble wife, "who through dearness of affection," says 
her friend Richard Baxter, " had marched with him and lain 
out-of-doors with him on the mountains," shared (as else- 
where) his wanderings on the Continent, " where they long 



Memoir of Lady Anita Mackenzie. 3 5 

followed, the Court." Balcarres was " taken for head of the 
Presbyterians," or Scottish constitutionahsts ; he held the 
office of Secretary of State for Scotland, and was employed 
in various political negotiations at Paris and elsewhere in 
the King's service. '' No one," says his grandson, " had 
more of his Majesty's favour, being cheerful as well as good 
and wise, yet Lord Clarendon, head of the High Church 
party, once got the better of him, and he was dismissed the 
court at Cologne, but soon recalled. The King thus ex- 
presses himself in a letter to Lord Arhngton, ' Our little 
court are all at variance, but Lord Balcarres will soon re- 
turn and heal us with his wisdom.' " I suspect that it is to 
a subsequent estrangement, but of a similar nature and 
arising from the same cause, on the part of Charles that 
Pnncipal Baillie alludes as a subject of resentment in Scot- 
land in a letter of the nth November 1658, in which he 
expresses himself curtly enough :— " What is become of the 
King and his family we do not know ; some talks that he 
should be in the Hague; many takes his unkindness to 
Balcarres very ill, especially that he should oppose his lady's 
provision to the oversight" (governance) "of the httle 
Prince of Orange; his obstinate observance of Hyde" 
(Clarendon) "offends all;" and he subsequently wites in 
1659, " I am not yet satisfied with Chancellor Hyde's very 
unjust breaking of his neck,— God will see to it." It is 
not wonderful perhaps that the High Church Clarendon 
and the Covenanter Balcarres should have failed to agree 
on poHtical matters; but such misunderstandings cannot 
but take place even between good men when their views 
of public interest differ. Clarendon was kind to the 
Countess Anna after her husband's death. I may mention, 
as a curious coincidence, in reference to the temporary 
banishment from Cologne, that during a second exile of the 
Balcarres family after the Revolution of 1688, Earl Alex- 
ander's son. Earl Colin, an Episcopalian, having been for- 
bidden the court at St. Germain's through the influence of the 



36 Memoir of Lady Anna Macke^izie. 

Roman Catholics about the person of James II., wrote an 
expostulatory letter to the King, the result of which was a 
letter from James himself, " writ with great goodness, owning 
that he had been imposed upon, and inviting him back. 
When he came home, he found '^ (writes his son) ^' a letter 
from his father to King Charles II, upon a like occasion, 
and almost every word the same, and the sentiments like- 
wise." I do not know whether Earl Alexander left a faith- 
ful friend behind him at Cologne to vindicate his honesty — 
Sir Robert Moray probably performed that office, — in the 
case of Earl Colin, one of the Fifeshire Malcolms, who had 
owed his fortunes to him, and had followed him into exile, 
would not quit the court at St. Germain's to join his patron 
till the truth was vindicated and justice done him. 

We have heard comparatively little of the proper 
subject of this memoir during these years of war and 
tumult j but a wife's hfe is bound up with her husband's, and 
hers was emphatically so, not only through her constant 
love for him but the sympathy with which she entered into, 
and the active co-operation which she afforded, so far as 
lay in her power, to all his objects. The poet Cowley ap- 
preciates this in one of the strophes of his quaint yet 
beautiful Elegy on her husband's death : — 

** Noble and great endeavours did he bring 
To save his country and restore his king ; 
And whilst the manly half of him (which those 
Who know not love to be the whole suppose) 
Perform' d all parts of virtue's vigorous life, 
The beauteous half, his lovely wife, 
Did all his labours and his cares divide, 
Nor was a lame nor paralytic side ; 
In all the turns of human state, 
And all the unjust attacks of fate, 
She bore her share and portion still, 
And would not suffer any to be ill. 
Unfortunate for ever let me be 
If I believe that such was he 
Whom, in the storms of bad success, 
And all that error calls unhappiness. 
His virtue, and his virtuous wife, did still accompany ! " 



Memoir of Lady Anna Macke^izie, 37 

The poet dwells much on the constancy with which the 
banished chief endured *^ his own and country's ruin," 
watching the while 

" the hurricanes around, 
Fix'd as an island 'gainst the waves and wind." 

But every heroic medal has its homely reverse, and the 
biographer must take note impartially of both- — of " pounds, 
shillings, and pence " as well as of the palm of victory, the 
crown of martyrdom. Difficulties of finance, incidental to 
the necessities of everyday subsistence, little thought of in 
the retrospect in comparison with weightier trials, yet not 
the less vexatious and wearing at the time, were the usual 
concomitants of loyalty in exile \ and Balcarres and his wife 
fared like others in the like position. I have already men- 
tioned the accumulation of private debt consequent on 
public necessities incurred by them during the preceding 
years, — their revenues from Scotland (such as remained 
after payment of the " annual rents " or interest on bor- 
rowed money) had been cut off, as we have seen, by Crom- 
well ; and, as a general rule, the Royal family could do 
but little to assist those who had thrown in their lot with 
them in the cause of their country. But then and at all 
times the Stuart princes had warm hearts ; they belonged 
to the old school (so to speak) of royalty j they were essen- 
tially, in character, great feudal nobles, and held themselves 
superior to the small formalities of etiquette, the expres- 
sion, in fact, of a more modern and conventional state 01 
things, — in prosperity they made warm friends, or it might 
be fierce enemies, of the barons and gentlemen among 
whom they ruled as " primi inter pares j" but in either case 
the friendship or the enmity was hearty and decided on 
both sides, — in adversity, on the other hand, their crust was 
always freely halved with their adherents ; they had always 
moreover defended the rights of the humbler classes against 
the unjust exercise of feudal power, and were kindly and 
gracious in bearing towards all men ; and thus it was that. 



38 Memoir of Lady A^ma Mackenzie. 

with all their faults, they rooted themselves, as a race and a 
dynasty, in the heart of Scotland, which still attaches a 
sentiment of kindhness to their memory — a mingled senti- 
ment of love for the past and value for the present, which 
expressed itself in an old popular rhyme, half tender, half 
critical, 

" Ilka thing hath its time, 
And sae had kings of the Stuart Hne ! " 

The Lindsays, at least, in all their branches, had no cause 
to complain of the indifference or forgetfulness of the 
Stuarts during or subsequently to the successive periods of 
civil war and exile which disturbed Scotland in the seven- 
teenth century. The Queen-mother, Henrietta Maria, 
daughter of Henri IV. of France and widow of Charles I., 
was extremely kind to the Countess Anna and her husband 
at the period I am now dwelUng upon, — so too was her 
daughter Mary Princess of Orange, who, though unable to 
assist them with ready money, stood security for a loan 
raised in Holland for their assistance ; Charles II. showed 
his good will subsequently ; and the Duke of York, after- 
wards James II., writing to Lord Balcarres in January 1659, 
and thanking him for " the continuance of the affection you 
have to our family," apologises by ^' the condition I am in " 
for his inability to do more at that time than acknowledge 
his obhgation to him, — " but I hope one day, I shall be 
better able to let you see it." The appointment of Lady 
Balcarres 2.%gouvernante to the little Prince of Orange, which 
the King and Clarendon appear to have opposed, probably 
because of her Presbyterian sympathies, was, I have little 
doubt, bestowed on her by the Princess Royal in view of the 
remuneration attached to the office no less than in con- 
sideration of the merits and qualities which rendered her 
pecuharly fitted for such a charge. The little Prince was 
afterwards, it should be stated, WilHam III. of Great 
Britain. 

I cannot chronicle with exactness the wanderings of 



Memoir of Lady Anna Macke7izie, 39 

exiles, but in 1657 and in 1658, at least, Balcarres and his 
wife wer6 settled at the Hague, and in constant intimacy 
with the family of Cornelius van Sommerdyck, Lord (as we 
used to say in Scotland) " of that Ilk," whose daughter 
Veronica was married the following year to another of the 
expatriated band of friends, Alexander Bruce, afterwards 
Earl of Kincardine, and predecessor of the late Earl of 
Elgin and Kincardine, Governor-General of India. Sir 
Robert Moray writes to Bruce after Lord Balcarres's death, 
" Say to your father-in-law that he hath me in my dear 
Gossip's " (Balcarres's) " place as far as I can fill it ; and if 
I were not his upon " that *^ account, his kindness to my 
dear Cummer " (Lady Balcarres) " is enough to make me 
so ; and he may be sure he has me his since he hath this 
double title to me, and yet the more that I was very much 
so before." 

These two years, meanwhile, were years of acute suffer- 
ing to Lady Anna's husband. His health had long been 
breaking. I mentioned the state of illness he was under 
when he undertook the campaign of 1653; and this is 
dwelt upon by King Charles in a letter to him in October 
that year, in which he writes (in reference to his having sent 
the commission as Commander-in-chief to Glencairn and not 
to himself), " As well your own letters as the relation of Sir 
William Bellenden gave me great apprehension of your 
want of health, nor have there wanted reports of your death, 
so that I had no hopes that you would have been able to 
have ventured into the Highlands." The hardships, in 
fact, of that campaign probably, in their consequences, cost 
him his life. He was extremely ill in 1657, and although 
he recovered somewhat in 1658, it was only for a brief 
interval. And moral causes were active likewise. The 
ruin of his country, the present distress of his family, anxiety 
for the future of his wife, soon to be his widow, and for his 
children, the " seeming displeasure of his prince " (alluding 
to the misunderstanding with Charles), and the failure of 



40 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

the rising for the King under Sir George Booth in August 
1659, (to which failure indeed his death was proximately 
attributed at the time in Scotland,) — " added," says Baxter, 
" to the distempers he had contracted by his warfare on the 
cold and hungry mountains " — all contributed to break up 
his constitution. This season of sorrow, during the last 
twelvemonth of his life, " he spent," says the author of an 
obituary memoir of him, " with such advantage to his own 
soul and the edification of others," that " there are many 
yet living that will, with all gratitude, acknowledge their con- 
versation with him, his heavenly discourses and holy example, 
put them much into the way of following him thither." 

The event came at last, and when it did come, the end 
was rapid. He died on Tuesday, the 7 th September, or 
according to the new style, the 30th August 1659, at Breda, 
whither he had removed from the Hague, on the occasion, 
I presume, of the king's " displeasure " above-mentioned. 
An interesting account of the last few days of his life is 
given in the memoir just quoted, but most of the facts are 
detailed with the pathos of a widow's heart in a letter from 
the Countess Anna to a relation and dear friend of her 
husband's and her own. Sir James, or Colonel Henderson, 
one of that remarkable and accomplished family of the 
Hendersons of Fordell, who supplied so many gallant 
soldiers to the wars of France, Holland, Denmark, and 
Sweden during the seventeenth century, and who had him- 
self attained his military honours in the French service. It 
is addressed to Maestricht, where Colonel Henderson pro- 
bably then was on a visit either to his sister who was mar- 
ried there, or to his cousin-german (through the Halkets of 
Pitfirran) Sir Robert Moray, who had been for some time 
resident in that ancient city : — 

*' Hague, the 31 of October. 
'' My noble and dear Cousin, 

" I could not leave this place without saying somewhat to 
your Lady and you of the sense I have of your civilities and kindness 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 41 

to me and to that dear saint of mine that is now in glory. I know you 
are both ^larers with me in this my sad loss I sustain of the want of 
one of the worthiest men in the world and the kindest husband ; there- 
fore I shall tell you that you, and I, and all that belongs to him has 
reason to rejoice that we have had such a subject to mourn for, since 
his goodness, the means that heightened his glory, is the object of that 
impatience that afflicts us. I assure you, he died as he lived, full of 
courage, and piety, and patience, and tenderness to me, and affection 
to his friends, and charity to his enemies. 

** Because I know well how you loved him, I shall tell you a little 
of what he said before the Lord took him. Upon the Wednesday in 
the morning he called me and prayed me that I would not be troubled 
with what he was to tell me, which was that he could rise up no more ; 
he had sat up and gone upon his feet till that time only to keep me from 
sad apprehensions of approaching death to him — or rather, I may say, 
life to him, joyful to him, though sad to me. When he saw me trou- 
bled, he said, ' My dear, why do you break my heart ? You ought to 
rejoice because I say, as my blessed Saviour did, I go to my Father, — 
aye,' said he, *and your Father; and because I go from persecution 
and calumny to that company of angels and the spirits of just men 
made perfect. ' Upon the Friday he said to me, * My dear, I have got 
good news to tell you ; I have overcome my greatest difficulty.' — ' My 
love,' said I, ' what's that ?' — Said he, ' To part with my dear ! Now 
I can leave you, for I have given you up to the Father, who, I am 
confident, will care for you.' — Oh me ! what that dear mouth said of 
me, and what I was, and what I had been to him, I am not able to 
relate, 'though it was fit for me ! That day he made a long prayer for 
the King, that the Lord would bless him with principles fit for him ; 
and a great deal more he said to this purpose ; and also he prayed for 
the rest of the Royal family, and for all his friends, particularly by 
name, that had been true and kind to him in his afflictions, and that 
God would forgive his enemies. He said he would not have gone in 
wrong step with them, contrair to what his conscience dictate to him, 
for all that the King had, had he been at Whitehall, nor for the w^hole 
world, and now he found the comfort of it ; and he desired a friend 
here to present his duty to the King, and tell him that, now that he 
was before it was long to answer to God for all he had done in his life, 
that he could say in the presence of God, the searcher of all hearts, 
that he had served the King, first and last, very faithfully and with an 
upright heart, and that he had never in all his life declined from that 
duty and fidelity he owed him, nor had he ever proposed to himself any 
other end in his service but his honour and advantage. 

' ' The last eight days of that dear life I may say his dear heart was 
always in heaven, for he was almost always praying, or hearing prayer, 



42 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

or reading, or speaking to the praise of his blessed Maker and Redeemer. 
There was with him one Mr. Forbes, a minister and a very honest man," 
who professed that in all his life he never was so happy nor got so much 
good of anything as in being with my dear at this time. 

** Upon the Saturday's night, he and I talking togeder alone, he 
said to me that there was many divines of the opinion that all that 
belonged to God, less or more, found that which Saint Paul speaks of 
in the eighth of the Romans, of the spirit of bondage; he said, he 
could not say that ever he found it in all his life. I remembered him 
what I had heard our minister (who is a most excellent man) say upon 
that text, that all had it less or more, but God, when he wounded some 
with the sight of their lost condition without Christ, applied the plais- 
ter so soon to the person wounded that the wound was not at all sensible, 
and he was sure there was many in heaven that never could say 
they felt the spirit of bondage. The next day I asked him if he would 
allow me to speak to Mr. Forbes of this before him, which he did ; to 
which Mr. Forbes answered, that God ofttimes did sow the seeds of 
grace when people was young, and that would insensibly grow up to a 
tree ; and he cited that in John, ' The wind bloweth where it listeth,' — 
*and now we see the fruit of that tree in you, my Lord,' said he to 
him. To which he answered, * I bless my Redeemer for it, since I 
was nine year old, and even then, I had my own little prayers and 
ejaculations to heaven, that even then kept me from sleep.' 

*' I sat always upon the carpet before his bed-side, and often I looked 
in to him, and, when I found not his eyes fixed upon heaven, I spake 
to him. 

*' Upon the Lord's day I asked him what he was doing, and said, 

* My love, have you attained to that great measure of assurance that 
you desire ? ' — To which he answered, ' I can not tell what they call full 
assurance, but this I can tell you, that I am as full of joy in belie^dng 
that my Redeemer is mine and I am his as I can hold, and that I shall 
be with him before it be long, and that he will never leave me.' — 

* That's good news, my dear,' said I, ' for you.' — ' Aye,' said he, * and 
for you also,' said he; * for you will quickly follow me.' — 'Aye, my 
dear, ' said I, ' you will not think it long, for a thousand years where 
you are going is but as yesterday when it is past.' 

*' Not a quarter of an hour before the Lord took him, he said to 
me with a strong voice, (for the Lord gave him the use of his senses, and 
that great judgment he blessed him with, to the very last moment,) 
' My dear, I follow a good guide ; he will never leave me, and I will 
never quit him. ' — I finding death fast approaching, I told him his Lord 
was fast making ready, attended with his blessed angels, to attend him 
to the mansion he had prepared for him before the world was, and that 
he would go with him through the valley of the shadow of death. At 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 43 

this he drew ii\ my head to him and took the last farewell, which you 
may easily imagine sad to me, and said, ' My dear, pray the passage 
may be easy. ' After that, he prayed a little, looking up whither he 
was going, laid those dear eyes together, and so went to his Redeemer 
out of my poor arms without the least motion. I stayed by him, and 
dressed him all myself, which he expected from me, — for a month 
before that he would not eat nor drink but that I gave, nor would not 
let anybody stir him but I. At last, I closed those dear eyes, and that 
dear mouth I never in all my life heard make a lie or take the name of 
God in vain. Oh ! how Christianly that dear saint of mine lived and 
died it is impossible for me to tell to you as it was ! This will satisfy 
you that I have said, so as to let you know your friend lives for ever. 

*' To tell you of my disconsolate condition is but unnecessar to you 
who know how great reason I have. I hope this sad separation will 
help to order my steps to the like passage to that place where my dear 
saint is gone before me. 

*' It is now near the time my letter must go, so I will say no more 
but to present my most kind respects to your worthy good lady and to 
your sister, my Lady Stencalven ; * and to desire you to beheve, wher- 
ever I am, I shall be, in the sense of all your favours, 

" Noble Cousin, 

*' Your very affectionate Cousin 

" and humble servant, 

" Anne Balcarres." 

*' This next week I intend, God willing, to leave this place." 



Thus, then, died, at the early age of forty-one, Alexander 
Lindsay Earl of Balcarres, a man who seems to have con- 
ciliated affection and admiration in almost equal proportion 
during his brief career, — "without doubt," according to 
Bailhe, " one of the most brave and able gentlemen of our 
nation, if not the most able;" while Baxter speaks of him 
as "a lord of excellent learning, judgment, and honesty, 
none being praised equally with him for learning and under- 
* This name seems to be written ' Stencolvis ' by Lord Kellie in 

1 66 1. He wi'ites as follows to Lauderdale, from Gouderoy, ^ April, — 

18 

*' My Lady Stencolvis, Colonel Henderson's sister, who is now at this 

place, presents her service to your Lordship and to my Lady. Your 

Lordship was once in her house at Maestricht. She is really a very 

able lady, and my good friend." 



44 Me7noir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

standing in all Scotland." And Cowley, in the elegy already 
cited, after speaking with no less appreciation of the " love 
and respect" which his character, political and personal, 
commanded from all men, and of 

" His wisdom, justice, and his piety, 
His courage, both to suffer and to die," 

compares the course of Providence in removing him to a 
better world rather than permit his hand, 

* ' That once with so much industry and art 
Had clos'd the gaping wounds of every part. 
To perfect his distracted nation's cure," 

to the dealings of sovereigns with their most trusted 
envoys : — 

"So God-hke kings, for secret causes, known 
Sometimes but to themselves alone, 
One of their ablest ministers elect. 
And send abroad to treaties which they intend 
Shall never take effect ; 
But though the treaty wants a happy end, 
The happy agent wants not the reward 
For which he labour'd faithfully and hard ; 
His just and gracious master calls him home. 
And gives him, near himself, some honourable room." 

As respects the private or personal character of Lord 
Balcarres I can add but little to that incidentally conveyed 
of him in his widow's letter to Colonel Henderson. The 
memoir I have more than once quoted describes him as 
"tender to his wife, affectionate to his friends, compas- 
sionately forgetting his enemies, kind to all his relations." 
It speaks further of his personal habits of devotion and 
study ; but I will only cite one little saying of his on his 
death-bed, probably on the occasion of the conversation 
with Mr. Forbes — Patrick Forbes, I believe, afterwards Bishop 
of Caithness — mentioned by Lady Balcarres. " My lord," 
asked Mr. Forbes, " do you forgive all your enemies, that have 
so maliciously persecute you % " " Aye, aye, Mr. Forbes," 
he rephed; ''long ago, — I bless God that is not to do." 



Memoir of L ady A mia Mackenzie. 4 5 

Lord Balcarres' remains were sent home to Scotland 
for burial. They were landed at Elie on the 2d of De- 
cember, and conveyed to Balcarres ; but the interment was 
delayed in anticipation of the Restoration, then in every 
one's expectation, and of the presence of Lady Balcarres. 
It was not therefore till the 12th of June 1660, while Scot- 
land and England were yet ringing with the acclamations 
that proclaimed King Charles once' more a monarch in his 
fathers' land, that the remains of his tried and faithful fol- 
lower were consigned by his widow and her two little sons 
to their last resting-place in the family chapel at Balcarres. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE warmest sympathy had been shown to Lady Bal- 
carres when the news of her impending bereave- 
ment reached her friends. Sir Robert Moray's letter 
on the occasion has not been preserved, but he wrote by 
the same opportunity to Alexander Bruce, from Paris, on 
the 1 2th September 1659, beginning with the abrupt but 
significant words, " This once you will be contented I 
say but little to you, though I never had so large a theme " 
After the expressions of grief natural to the occasion, but 
repressed with the stoicism which, as Burnet tells us, veiled 
over although it could not deaden the kindness of his heart, 
he proceeds, " Let us henceforward converse and speak as 
calmly of what concerns my dear Cummer as we can, and get 
her to do so too. My undoubting expectation your next 
will tell me my dear Gossip hath shaken off mortality makes 
me think of what concerns my dear Cummer and her little 
ones j and here I give you not only mine own thoughts but 
my Lord Jermyn's, that no time may be lost in determining 
what is fit for her to do. I do not know in what portion 
of his estate she is infeft, nor whether her infeftment is Un- 
broken, nor where it is ; but I think it will be necessary to 
prepare as soon as possible for a journey home to settle 
what concerns it and her little ones, and the estate. Her 
way must be by London, for which either she needs no pass, 
or may get Downing's.* There she will get Lauderdale's 
advice " (Lauderdale was still confined in the Tower, having, 
like Crawford-Lindsay, been a prisoner in England ever since 

■^ Downing, afterwards Sir George Downing, Bart., was then Resi- 
dent or Ambassador from the Commonwealth to Holland. 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 47 

1 65 I,) "and may procure what is necessary for taking off 
sequestration, &c., unless she determines otherwise. If 
there be any inconvenience in carrying the Httle ones" (that 
is, her daughters) /' with her, they may be left where they 
are, especially if she have any thought of coming back to be 
about the P. R.," (the Princess Royal or Princess of Orange,) 
" which will be secured to her the while. I know not 
indeed how she shall be provided for the journey unless you 
help her in it ; yet I think the Queen" (Henrietta Maria) 
" will do somewhat in it, if she stay so long as it might be 
got done ; for I would have her gone before winter." It 
was in pursuance of these arrangements that Lady Balcarres 
proceeded to London, as intimated in her letter to Colonel 
Henderson above given, in the beginning of November 
1659. 

The Queen had written very kindly to her on the 19th 
September, on hearing of her loss, expressing the esteem 
she had entertained for Lord Balcarres and the pleasure it 
would give her to contribute anything to her consolation. 
She wrote likewise to her daughter, the Princess of Orange, 
(as she tells her in a second letter dated the nth October,) 
in the same strain. And from the Princess of Orange, to 
whom Lady Balcarres had apparently written from England, 
thanking her for past kindnesses, she received a letter 
so cordial and appreciative that it is worth insertion, although 
part of it refers to a matter irrelevant to this narrative, the 
opposition offered by Charles II. to his sister's visit to Paris 
at the time in question : — 

* ' My Lady Balcarres, 

* ' If it had been in my power, you should have found before 
this time the effects of that true esteem I have for your person, for I 
may assure you with truth that the want of those occasions did much 
trouble me, and now more than ever, finding how much you are satisfied 
with those very httle civilities I was able to perform when I was with 
you, which I am so ashamed you should take notice of that I will leave 
this subject, and tell you that the kindness of the Queen's invitation of 
me to come to her is very well able alone to overcome all endeavours 



4 8 Memoir of L ady Anna Mackenzie. 

of hindering me from that happiness, if I had not a most passionate 
desire of waiting upon her Majesty, which I hope to do very shortly in " 
spite of all designs to the contrary ; and wherever I go, let me desire 
you to believe that I shall always strive to show you the reality of my 
being, My Lady Balcarres, 

' ' Your most affectionate friend, 

"Marie." 

And this letter again was followed not long afterwards by 
a few lines from King Charles himself, dated '^ Brusselles, 
29th March 1660," in which he says, — 

" Madame, 

' ' I hope you are so well persuaded of my kindness to you as 
to believe that there can no misfortune happen to you and I not 
have my share in it. I assure you I am troubled at the loss you have 
had ; and I hope that God will be pleased to put me into such a con- 
dition before it be long as I may let you see the care I intend to have 
of you and your children, and that you may depend upon my being very 
truly, Madame, 

" Your affectionate friend, 

"Charles R." 

I cite these letters as testifying to the kindness of heart 
that dictated them rather than to the merits of her they were 
addressed to. Even simple sympathy and courtesy, the 
" cup of cold water " of Our Saviour's commendation, apart 
from active assistance, have their kindly value; but Charles's 
words were not idle promises. He redeemed his pledge as 
soon as it was in his power to do so, after the Restoration, 
by settling on Lady Balcarres and the longest liver of her 
two sons Charles and Colin a pension of one thousand 
pounds a year on her giving up during their minority the 
patent of the hereditary government of the Castle of Edin- 
burgh. And he took great personal interest in the fortunes 
of her surviving son. Earl Colin — " as well for his father's 
sake," he writes in 1672, "as his own" — throughout his 
reign. It was several years, however, before the grant of 
the pension could take full effect, so exhausted was the Scot- 
tish treasury and so pressing the immediate demands upon 



Alcinoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 49 

it ; and during this interval Lady Balcarres suffered occa- 
sionally great privations. 

I may here interpose, although a little out of its place, 
a letter of Lady Balcarres to the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, 
referring to the King's proposed assistance, and which 
shews incidentally that Hyde had been kind to her, as 1 
previously intimated. It was forwarded to him, I believe, 
through Lauderdale : — 

** My very noble Lord, 

" If I was not hindered by indisposition, my mouth had given 
your Lordship this repeated trouble, and not my hand. Your noble 
reception of that which both have already offered you encourages me to 
this, which I hope will be the more easy to you that I leave the whole 
representment of my pressures to this noble bearer, my kindest cousin. 
I shall only just put you in mind that I rely confidently upon the assur- 
ance I gathered from your favoui-able expressions concerning my desires 
and his Majesty's gracious promises, and earnestly beg your Lordship 
may be pleased to interpose your credit with him again to make them 
effectual. And I will ever account this noble favour to be an eminent 
testimony of your compassionate care of my poor children and most 
obliging kindness to, 

" My noble Lord, 

'•' Your Lordship^s most humble servant, 

"Anne Balcarres." 
'' For the Earl of Clarendon, 
" Lord High Chancellor of England." 

Lady Balcarres's visit to London in November 1659 
was, I take it, very short \ and after transacting her imme- 
diate business she returned to the Continent, and remained 
there some months longer with " the little ones," her 
daughters. Baxter speaks of her coming over "with the 
King," which would be in May 1660; but the expression 
must not be construed literally, as Charles crossed over to 
Dover on the 25th, and entered Westminster on the cele- 
brated 29th, while the Countess Anna was already at 
Balcarres on the 17 th of that auspicious month. The one 
great object of her visit to Fife has already been intimated 
— to pay the last honours to the remains of her husband. 



50 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

But tears and smiles mark the varying hours on the dial of 
life, just as lights and shadows are ever chasing each other 
across the varied features of the summer landscape. Amidst 
all her sorrow, the pure delight of embracing her two sons, 
Charles and Colin, once more, after an absence of seven 
years, awaited her at Balcarres ; and she writes to Lauder- 
dale accordingly, on the 17 th of May, in the fulness of her 
content, — " I bless the Lord for it, I have found here two 
of the prettiest healthfulest boys that can be, and so like 
their dear father that I know not which of them may be 
said is the likest." With these little companions, the eldest 
aged nine, the younger seven or eight years old, she cannot 
have found the visit to Balcarres altogether melancholy. 
The memories, moreover, that haunted the scenes which . 
for so many years had ceased to be familiar ones, were all 
connected with her husband's and her own early love and 
home occupations in the more cheerful days before the 
Civil War acquired intensity and required Lord Balcarres' s 
presence elsewhere. Such memories, if sad, must neverthe- 
less have been soothing also. Indoors there was his 
" closet," or library, full of rare and interesting volumes 
inherited from his father ^and grandfather, a collection 
augmented by himself, where Lauderdale and he had held 
bibliomaniacal counsel together, with herself as interlocutor, 
in former years, and which his son and successor Earl Colin 
developed during his days of prosperity into what was in 
the days of Sir Robert Sibbald esteemed " a great Bibho- 
theck." And out of doors there was the garden, in which 
they had both taken deep interest, she in the flowers, many 
of them now-a-days accounted mere weeds, which they had 
imported and cultivated, and he particularly in his pears, 
Bergamots from France, which Sir Robert Moray had pro- 
cured and sent him from Paris when in the service of the 
Cardinal de Richelieu, and which, it seems, succeeded 
admirably on the walls at Balcarres, notwithstanding the 
exposed cHmate of the East of Fifeshire. The old house 



Memoir of Lady An7ia Mackenzie, 5 1 

of Balcaijes, with its paved cloister or court, its towers, 
turrets, and gabled roofs without, and its deeply recessed 
window-seats, curiously stuccoed ceilings, and winding turn- 
pike-stair within, (the latter still the only access to the upper 
regions of the building even in its present state,) was then 
untouched, in its quaint and picturesque simplicity. Holhes 
and ilexes, and loftier elms, and other forest-trees, planted 
by David Lord Balcarres and by his father Secretary Lindsay, 
(most of them still surviving, and the home of thousands of 
rooks,) surrounded the house ; and the infant trees of one 
grove in particular, of her husband's and her own planting, 
and which still went by the name of " the New Planting " 
in the recollection of persons still alive, were vigorously 
growing up in rivalry with the little Charles and Colin, their 
contemporaries. The Craig of Balcarres, now in great part 
covered with trees, and its lower zone with an undergrowth 
of enormous branching laurels, was then unplanted and 
bare ; and Lady Balcarres and her little companions (more 
familiar with its recesses) often doubtless wandered thither, 
to ramble over its broken rocks, or admire the magnificent 
view outstretching from the summit, embracing mountain 
and vale, lake and sea, firth and islands, village-kirk and 
storied tower, and the distant gleam of Edinburgh, and the 
stem outline of Arthur's Seat in the further distance, all in- 
cluded within one vast and varied horizon. I do not wonder 
that amid such scenes, with such companions, and in the 
sacred vicinity of the chapel rich with the dust so lately 
consigned to it, the widowed Countess found rest and con- 
solation for a harassed spirit, and lingered on there for 
nearly two months, till obliged to return to England and to 
London by urgent claims calling for her presence. She 
started with the children on her return south on the 12 th 
of July, as stated by Lament, the Fifeshire chronicler, who 
carefully notices the comings and goings from Balcarres. 

From this time till May 1662, for nearly two years, the 
Countess Anna remained in England. She had much 



5 2 Memoir of Lady Anita Mackenzie, 

business to transact at head-quarters, business of the nature 
pointed at in Sir Robert Moray's letter to Alexander Bruce 
above quoted, and in which she had in him, in Lauderdale, 
and Crawford-Lindsa.y, able and kind advisers. It was at 
this time, I presume, that she first became personally ac- 
quainted with Richard Baxter, the admirable author of the 
" Saints' Rest," who has spoken so frequently and warmly 
of her in his memoirs and elsewhere. The following is the 
account he gives of the origin of their friendship : — " When 
the Earl of Lauderdale," Lord Balcarres's '^ near kinsman 
and great friend, was prisoner in Portsmouth and Windsor 
Castle, he fell into acquaintance with my books, and so 
valued them that he read them all, and took notes of them, 
and earnestly recommended them to the Earl of Balcarres 
with the King. The Earl of Balcarres met, at the first 
sight, with some passages where he thought I spoke too 
favourably of the papists and difi'ered from many other 
protestants, and so cast them by, and sent the reason of 
his distaste to the Earl of Lauderdale, who pressed him but 
to read one of the books through, which he did, and so read 
them all, (as I have seen many of them marked with his 
hand,) and was drawn to over-value them more than the 
Earl of Lauderdale. Hereupon his lady reading them also, 
and being a woman of very strong love and friendship, with 
extraordinary entireness swallowed up in her husband's 
love, for the books' sake, and her husband's sake, she be- 
came a most affectionate friend to me before she ever saw 
me. While she was in France, being zealous for the King's 
restoration, (for whose cause her husband had pawned and 
ruined his estate,) by the Earl of Lauderdale's direction, she, 
with Sir Robert Moray, got divers letters from the pastors 
and others there, to bear witness of the King's sincerity in 
the protestant religion. Her great wisdom, modesty, piety, 
and sincerity made her accounted the saint at the Court. 
When she came over with the King, her extraordinary 
respects obliged me to be so often with her as gave me ac- 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 53 

quaintance with her eminency in all the aforesaid virtues. 
She is of a sohd understanding in rehgion for her sex, and 
of prudence much more than ordinary, and of great integrity 
and constancy in her rehgion, and a great hater of hypo- 
crisy, and faithful to Christ in an unfaithful world ; and she 
is somewhat overmuch affectionate to her friend, which 
hath cost her a great deal of sorrow in the loss of her hus- 
band, and since of other special friends, and may cost her 
more when the rest forsake her, as many in prosperity use 
to do those that will not forsake their fidehty to Christ." — 
" Being my constant auditor and over-respectful friend, I had 
occasion," he adds, " for the just praises and acknowledg- 
ments which I have given her." 

A bitter trial awaited her towards the end of the year 
1660, and from a quarter whence perhaps she least expected 
it, — the conversion of her eldest daughter, in fact her eldest 
child. Lady Anna Lindsay, aged between sixteen and seven- 
teen, to Roman Catholicism. Lady Anna was of a very 
thoughtful character, and '' had made it," as she stated sub- 
sequently in a letter to her mother, " her whole business till 
seventeen years of age to pray to God to direct her to 
follow His doctrine." The Jesuits about the court, and 
especially a father known by the names of Johnson and 
Terret, took advantage, I suspect, of her mother's absence 
in Scotland — and there seems reason to think with the 
Queen-mother's privity- — to lay siege to her faith and com- 
mend the claims of the Romanist church by contrasting the 
" variety of judgments " in the Protestant communions with 
the unity, authority, and hohness of the Church Catholic as 
represented by the see of Rome, — using, in short, the argu- 
ments urged by Bossuet later in the century, and which 
have been so frequently employed with success under 
similar circumstances by Roman Catholic proselytisers in 
our own time. On becoming acquainted with her daughter's 
doubts Lady Balcarres applied in the first instance to Dr. 
Gunning, one of the most learned and eminent of the 



54 Memoir of Lady A^ina Mackenzie, 

English divines, and afterwards Bishop of Chichester, " .to 
meet with the priest, to dispute with him, and try if her 
daughter might be recovered ;" but the Doctor *' first be- 
gan " (I quote Baxter's account of Lady Balcarres's report 
of the controversy) " to persuade her daughter against the 
Church of Scotland which she had been bred in as no true 
church, and afterwards disputed but about the Pope's infal- 
libility, and left her daughter worse than before ; and she 
took it to be a strange way " (she observed) " to deliver her 
daughter from Popery to begin with a condemnation of the 
Reformed churches as no true churches and confess that 
the Church and ministry of Rome was true." What Dr. 
Gunning meant is intelligible enough, although Lady Bal- 
carres may not have understood or construed it correctly. 
At first, indeed, it would appear as if the poor girl's best 
interests had been betrayed and sacrificed in an argument 
directed as much against Presbyterianism as Popery, in the 
view of the superior claims of the Church of England ; but. 
the conditions of the dispute seem to have been determined 
by the nature of the doubts and the character of the person 
Dr. Gunning had to deal with ; and perceiving that it was 
not so much a question of feeling as of principle and fact, ' 
in which the head rather than the heart was concerned, and 
unable to deal effectually with the argument for Popery ex-- 
cept from a Catholic point of view, he pointed out, as I 
understand it, that the certainty she craved and the sure 
footing she sought for amid the diversities of theological 
opinion and private judgment which she observed among 
the Protestants could only be found in the Apostolical 
doctrine of the CathoHc Church as represented by the Re- 
ormed Church of England, primitive alike in antiquity and 
pure in doctrine, preserving the succession from the 
Apostles unbroken, and protesting, in the strength of her 
QEcumenical and world-wide standard, against novelties of 
doctrine, whether in addition to or subtraction from the 
faith — Romanist, Calvinist, Lutheran, Independent, or 



Memoir of Lady A7ina Mackenzie. 5 5 

otherwisQ — with strict impartiality. But what, after all, 
could be expected from such arguments in the case of an 
untaught, unlessoned girl of seventeen — arguments con- 
ducted too in the formal manner of the schools — except a 
confirmed submission on her part to the authority of those 
who announced their views with the most uncompromising 
dogmatism, and supported them with the most unscrupulous 
sophistry ? 

It was at this moment that, hearing that Lady Balcarres 
was ill, Baxter went to see her, and found her in the state 
of grief and perplexity which can so well be imagined under 
the circumstances just detailed. Deeply sympathising with 
her, he conversed repeatedly with her daughter Lady Anna, 
and endeavoured, but in vain, to induce the priest who had 
perverted her to meet and discuss the claims of Rome with 
him in her presence ; and the affair ended in her being 
" stolen away secretly from her mother in a coach, con- 
veyed to France, and put into a nunnery, where," adds 
Baxter, " she is since dead. [N'ot long after her departure 
she sent a letter to her lady mother, and subscribed ^ Sister 
Anna Maria.' It contained the reasons of her perversion ; 
and, though I knew they were not likely to suffer her to 
read it, I Avrote an answer to it at her mother's desire, which 
was sent to her by her mother." Sister Anna Maria's letter 
has not been preserved, but Baxter's, dated the ist Decem- 
ber 1660, is given in his " Rehquiae." The superior of her 
convent need not have withheld it, as it does but little 
honour to his polemical skill. The arguments properly 
suited to the matter in controversy are not resorted to, and 
an acrimony against the Church of Rome pervades it, in 
which it is difficult to recognise the better spirit of the 
A\Titer. He evidently expected no effect from it. " We 
shall have leave to pray for you," he concludes, ^ though we 
cannot have leave to instruct you ; and God may hear us 
when you will not ; which I have the more hopes of because 
of the piety of your parents, and the prayers and tears of a 



56 Memoir of Lady A^ina Mackenzie, 

tender mother poured out for you, 'and your own well- 
meaning pious disposition," — but this is the only touch of 
tenderness throughout the composition. " This," adds 
Baxter, in terminating his narrative of this distressing epi- 
sode, " was the darling of that excellent, wise, religious 
lady, the widow of an excellent lord ; which made the afflic- 
tion great, and taught her to moderate her affections to all 
creatures." 

The whole of the ensuing year, 1661, was spent by Lady 
Balcarres (as I have said) in England ; and at the beginning 
of 1662 the result, as regarded the business that detained 
her there, was that whatever could be done at the time had 
been done for the estate and her own and her children's 
provision, — that provision had been made sure and certain 
as to the future, but money was still difficult to be had, and 
there was not as yet the prospect of her pension being paid 
except in small instalments. It thus appeared to be the 
wisest course in all respects that she should return to Scot- 
land, both as a cheaper residence and to look after the 
family affairs at home, leaving, as before, her brother-in-law, 
Sir Robert Moray, now Justice-Clerk, her cousin Lauderdale, 
Secretary of State for Scotland, and Crawford-Lindsay, the 
High Treasurer, to do what they could in her behalf. She sent 
the two boys to Balcarres about the beginning of 1662, and 
followed herself with her two remaining daughters, Sophia 
and Henrietta, in May that year. She requested Baxter, 
as he tells us, " being deeply sensible of the loss of the com- 
pany of those friends which she left behind her, to preach 
the last sermon she was to hear from him " ^' on those 
words of Christ, ' Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now 
come, that ye shall be scattered every one to his own, and 
shall leave me alone ; and yet I am not alone, because the 
Father is with me.'" She had need for all the consolation 
such thoughts could give her, for more suffering was in store 
for her heart, and the less painful but wearing anxieties of 
finance pressed very heavily upon her. 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 57 

These last are vividly set forth in a letter to Lauderdale, 
written on the 4th July, shortly after her arrival at Balcarres, 
and in another written without her knowledge by Mr. David 
Forret, minister of Kilconquhar, already mentioned — one of 
those attached and confidential family friends of whom so 
many examples present themselves in the history of the 
ancient famiUes of Scotland. Lady Balcarres in her letter 
speaks severely and perhaps hardly of Craw^ford-Lindsay ; 
and it must be ow^ned . that, with all his great abilities, he 
was (in his private capacity) very careless in money matters, 
a point of view in which indifference or remissness is often 
cruelty in its effect upon others j but the real fact was that 
the difiiculty of raising money from Scottish revenues for 
Scottish objects at that time of general distress and dis- 
organisation was greater than can well be imagined. I am 
not however very sohcitous to apologise for a touch of 
impatience which always belongs to a character ardent and 
impassioned, however self-disciplined, as hers was. For 
good VLx. Forret, a looker-on and friend, any excuse would 
be superfluous. Lady Balcarres's letter is as follows : — 

" My Lord, 

" I entreat you to give the King this with your first con- 
venience, and, for God's sake, do all you can to get me a speedy 
answer ; and consider seriously upon my condition, and that He that 
sits in heaven, who sees what you do for the widow and fatherless, will 
reward you. The remembrance of your dead friend, that loved you as 
his own heart, I hope will have its room in yours with that of my sad 
and sorrowful condition, who never wanted that degree of courage and 
kindness to you which would have made me ha' ventured my life for 
you. But I will say no more of this, but that I will wait with great 
impatience till I hear from you. Shall I yet say a word now of my 
condition to you ? I am not for the present mistress of sixpence. Yet 
I will not blame my Lord Crawford, how ill soever he use me. I am 
rather sorry he is so unfortunate never to oblige his friends and those 
that wish him best. I would beseek your Lordship to speak to him, not 
as from me but from yourself, — desire that he would but let me have 
presently but that money there is precepts " (orders) " drawn for, which 
is two hunder and fifty pound [that] my Lord Ballantyne " (Bellenden) 
*'drew, and a hunder that rest unpaid of the two hundred and fiftyll he 



S8 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

gave for me before he left Scotland. If he would cause presently give me 
the 35011, or 40011, it would pay all what I owe yet at London and do 
some necessary things I have to do here. I owe to Mr. Dudney lOoH, 
which Sir William Waller is bound for, that must be precisely paid the 
beginning of August ; and looH to Mrs. Tyler my Lord Crawford is 
bound for himself, — besides, all my apothecary's accompts and others 
there, as Mr. Drummond can tell you, will be more than sixty pound. 
If my Lord do nothing in this for your Lordship, I will crave leave to 
say he is in the wrong, for if it was not for you, I fear there would be 
but little in his power to do for anybody. O me ! my dear Lord, 
think upon the complications of afflictions I have to go under ; my 
pressures, and the apprehensions I have and disturbance for my poor 
child Charles, is not easy to bear. For fear the breathings of my 
afflicted spirit may affect yours, I will break off and bid you adieu ! I 
fear you think it's more than time. 

'' I have written to my Lord Chancellor of England. If it get any 
answer by writ, break it up. You will by it know what I may expect. 
I have sent it by Dr. Earles, my old kind friend." 

Mr. Forret's letter reveals the state of distress and con- 
sequent illness to whicli Lady Balcarres was reduced by this 
state of pressing difficulty and uncertainty. I would not 
dwell too much on such minor troubles, but they illustrate 
the trials and sufferings, small as well as great, which dogged 
the footsteps yet glorified the path of loyalty and patriotism 
two hundred years ago, and may (God only knows) attend 
those of the Countess Anna's descendants under similar 
circumstances in future years ; for what has been may be 
again, and there is nothing new under the sun : — 

" Right Honourable, 

'' My Lady Balcarres some hours after she sent her servant 
for London fell in a very sore and most dangerous fit of sickness. Mr. 
Wood was present with her all that night ; he told me her weakness 
was so great (her pulse for some hours not being discernible) that he 
looked every moment for present death. The next day I went in to 
the town and found my lady in a condition little better ; and therefore 
we resolved presently to send to Sir John Wedderburn for his advice. 
Mr. Wood (who hath some skill in medicine) sent an information to the 
Doctor concerning her disease. I behoved to come out in the end of 
the week, and so knows not yet either his judgment anent the disease, 
or what his advice is. My lady after the fourth night (blessed be God!) 
became some better, but is still very weak and oppressed with extreme 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 59 

grief, wliijk she keeps within, not making it known to any save to me, 
whom my lady knows to be fully acquainted with the cause of it. The 
present great straits my lady is in, the. difficulty she hath to provide 
for her family, though she live as frugally and sparingly as any can do, the 
clear foresight she hath of the inevitable ruin of the estate if the Lord 
in mercy do not prevent it, do so overwhelm her spirit that her stomach 
is near gone ; and [she] gets very little sleep in the night ; and such a 
weak body as my lady hath cannot long subsist in this condition. If 
my Lord Crawford knew but half so much of my lady's straits as I 
do, I am persuaded he would not be so forgetful of her as he is. It is 
no wonder that my lady is in such straits, and hath such difficulty in 
maintaining her family, seeing the rent of her jointure for the year 1662 
was all spent before my lady came to Scotland. A part of it was de- 
tained in the tenants' hands for money previously advanced by them ; a 
considerable part of it was sent by bill to London for bringing home 
the children, and the rest spent in the house before my lady's return ; 
so that all this last summer (in which time my lady was at great charges, 
partly by physicians and partly by going several times to Edinburgh 
about her necessary affairs) my lady was necessitate to live on the 
rent of her jointure for the crop 1662 ; and now that year's rent is 
wholly exhausted, and verily my lady is in such perplexity that she 
knows not whither to turn her. There is no money here for borrowing. 
My lady's tenants can do no more for her help than they have done, 
so that if the Treasurer do not for her, I profess seriously I see no other 
of it but that within a few weeks she shall be reduced to as great ex- 
tremity as ever she was in when she lived among strangers. And there- 
fore, my noble Lord, I must so far presume as humbly and with all 
earnestness to entreat your Honour, for the Lord's sake, and as ye 
tender the life of your dear friend, to deal effectually with my Lord 
Crawford for a considerable and present supply ; for her condition ad- 
mits of no delay. As for the estate, it is in a most desperate condition, 
— if something is not done by his Majesty for the recovery of it, it is 
ruined. Your Lordship, I am confident, will do in this what possibly 
can be done ; and whenever any gi-ounds of hope appear that anything 
can be done for preserving of it from ruin, if your Honour shall be 
pleased to make this known to my lady, it would much revive her, and 
ease her of that burden of grief that weights down her heart. 

* ' I add no more ; but, humbly craving pardon for the trouble I 
put your Honour to by this too long letter, I shall always continue, 
" My noble Lord, 

*' Your Lordship's most humble servant, 

*'Mr. David Forret." 

It was not till some time after these letters were written 



6o Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

that matters mended in a worldly point of view, and I shall 
have a good deal still to say upon the subject. But the 
arrow of a deeper affliction was threatening the heart of Lady 
Balcarres at the moment we are now pausing upon ; and its 
descent was not long withheld. 

In the letter to Lauderdale above inserted Lady Bal- 
carres speaks, it will have been noticed, of " the appre- 
hensions I have and disturbance for my poor child Charles," 
now, since his father's death. Earl of Balcarres. His health, 
and beauty, and likeness to his father, had been conspicuous 
on her first arrival at Balcarres two summers previously, after 
seven years of absence. But the seeds of illness were latent 
in him, and of an illness of a very peculiar and terrible 
description, although unattended apparently with much pain. 
He died, says Baxter, " of a strange disease, a large stone 
being found in his heart after death,— an emblem" (he 
observes characteristically) " of the mortal malady now 
reigning." He was, Baxter adds, '' an excellent youth, of 
great parts and piety." He was but twelve years and eight 
months old at the time of his death, having been born, as 
will be remembered, just before Charles II. 's visit to Balcarres 
in February 165 1. He died on the 15th October, 1662. 
A letter, unburdening her sorrow to Lauderdale, her husband's 
and her own friend of so many years' standing, gives an 
interesting account of the last days of her little charge : — 

*' My dear Lord, 

' ' There has been constantly so great a crowd of kind neigh- 
bours that it was not possible for me to do that which was both my 
duty and incHnation, to let your Lordship know the sad breach the 
Lord has made in this poor family in taking my dear child Charles so 
unexpectedly from me. I know this sad and sharp stroke that wounds 
so my heart will pierce yours very sensibly, and the more when you 
remember what he was and whose he was. Oh ! my dear Lord, my loss 
is great, — of a dear and wise child, who was so obedient and loving to 
me, whose carriage said he had no will but mine, next to the pleasing of 
God. Alas ! so foolish was I to build upon the wisdom, gravity, piety, 
I saw in this my dear child, that he would be some extraordinary 
meteor and example to his family and others, — which God has thought 



Me77ioir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 6i 

fit to throw down at one blow ; which has stnick me so to the ground 
that I can'do nothing but stand astonished with my blow, and consider 
the sovereignty, the mercy, the wisdom of Him that gave it ; all which 
cries aloud to me, * Be still, and know that I am God I ' Shall the pot- 
sherds of the earth say. What doest thou ? to him before whom we are 
as grasshoppers ? I see enough to silence clay and dust, though I 
should not consider his love, his righteousness, his fatherliness, all 
which does appear in his dealings towards me, — and in this last I 
ought not in the least to complain, since he has but taken his own and 
that he had fitted for himself, and has given me the satisfaction to find 
I was happy as to be a mother to an heir of heaven. 

* ' Though it may seem tedious to another to read, and appear fond 
passion to be the cause of my writing, yet I shall fear no such thing 
from you, so shall let your Lordship know this child has had like a 
quotidian ague since April last ; till within this two month, six weeks ago, 
[he continued] to have his own fresh colour and flesh, — ten days before 
God took him he became very melancholy and did sensibly decay daily ; 
his clear colour became blackish, and his hands and feet seldom or never 
hot. Upon the Lord's day before the Lord took him, I, being appre- 
hensive of that which was approaching, would not suffer him to go to 
church. Though he fand neither pain nor sickness, nor apprehended 
any such thing as death, yet did he spend that day as if it had been his 
last, in reading, prapng, and singing psalms ; and, what was strange, 
took up the psalms himself, though he had no music, as if it had been 
his practice all his hfe ; he read and sung such places as made his 
choice matter of my admiration. The last psalm he sung was the last 
part of the 34th. Upon Monday and Tuesday he vomit all that he did 
eat or drink, without being sick, — he had a most sad sigh, which made 
me question him what made him sigh so deeply ; he said he had many 
challenges that he had not spent his time so in the ser\dce of God as he 
should have done ; he was in some anxiety of spirit for an hour, but 
after he had prayed and given himself up to God, and cast all his 
burden upon his Mediator and Cautioner, he was at great quiet, said he 
had not the least trouble to leave the world, only to leave his ' dear 
lady mother and Sophia.' Upon Wednesday morning, at six o'clock, 
after a quiet night's rest, in a moment he found all his strength and 
spirits decay togeder, and called to me, and threw his arms about my 
neck, and prayed God to * bless his dear lady mother,' desired Mr. 
Forret to pray, and then he looked up and desired of God that the blood 
of Jesus Christ would clean him of all his sins, and that He would take 
him to be for ever with Himself, which He immediately did, — so my 
dear child went to Him that made him without either pain or sickness. 
I caused open him, — his lungs and all his noble parts was untouched ; 
he had a great liver and a great spleen full of black blood, yet had no 



62 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

blood at all in his veins ; only his heart was his defect, which had in it 
a stone that weights an ounce and a half. The stone and the physician's 
description that opened him I intend to send to your Lordship with the 
first sure bearer, which I pray your Lordship let Dr. Fraser see,"^ who I 
know will be troubled for his father's son, and will give me his advice 
concerning the rest of my poor children, who are now a small number, 
— but blessed be the Lord for what I have ! He gives and he takes. 

" I know the most part thinks it a strange thing to see me so 
affected with this, whose daily food is affliction ; but I hope your Lord- 
ship will not do so, but will allow somewhat of compassion to the 
bowels and heart of a tender mother to so good and dear a child. I 
do expect pity from my friends, since I am so great an object of it 
since the hand of God has touched me. I am pained at the very heart 
till I begin to consider the joy and glory my dear child is enjoying, how 
he is beholding the King in his beauty, and following the Lamb, and 
that before it be long I shall see that City that's now afar off; and, 
though I live in a continual storm, the gale will, I hope, blow at last 
will blow me into the haven. 

' ' My dear Lord, pray for me as I do for you, that I may be 
strengthened with all might, according to his glorious promise, unto all 
patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. 
* ' I am, my dear Lord, 

" Your most affectionate Cousin 

*' and humble servant, 

" Anne Balcarres. 

'^ Shall I desire your Lordship to present my humble duty to the 
King and tell him I have done, I bless God, my duty to his god-son, — 
but God has done better. I hope his Majesty will care for the poor 
children who is behind. 

* ' My Lord, pray present my kind respects to my Lady and my Lady 
Mary.t I know my Lady will so much know my condition that I cannot 
write much at this time. I have writ much more than I intended. 
Adieu, my dear Lord ! " 

Some time after this, Lady Balcarres sent up to Lauder- 
dale by the hands of Sharpe, Archbishop of St. Andrews, for 
medical inspection, the stone which had been found in Earl 
Charles's heart. She wrote as follows on the occasion : — 

* Sir Alexander Fraser, Court physician to Charles 11. , and a great 
friend of Lauderdale, Moray, etc., at London. 

t Lauderdale's daughter, the ** Lady Anne" of the peerages. 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, . 63 

" My dear Lord, 

" When I consider how lazy I am to write, and also how 
desirous I really am that my friends should never be troubled with 
hearing of so unfortunate a person as I am, your Lordship knows so 
well for whom it is I do it that I will make no apology for what I daily 
trouble you with. Now, my Lord, I shall only say, I have sent your 
Lordship, with my Lord St. Andrews, a poor pledge for so rich a jewel, 
— this is all I have now for my dear child, my little saint I may rather 
say, who is now, I hope, a star of the first magnitude. Oh ! my sweet 
child ; how distressed, how sorrowful has he left me, with an afflicted 
family ! I could say much of my losses of my two dear Lord Balcar- 
reses, but I know it is not so civil as pleasant to me, and the rather 
when I remember it's to your Lordship, whose they both were, almost 
as mine. Were it not too tedious, I think I could have written, though 
not so learnedly yet more fully, and that which your Lordship and 
physicians (that, I think, will be astonished with the bigness of the 
stone, how his little heart could contain it) would have made use of. 
My Lord, pray let me know what physicians say of it, and if there 
could have been help for it, and whether they think he had it from his 
conception, or but lately grown. — I am, my dear Lord, 
" Your most affectionate Cousin 

*' and humble servant, 

"Anne Balcarres." 

Earl Charles was buried on the 21st October 1662, six 
days after his decease, in the chapel of Balcarres, and 
according to the chronicler of Fife, " in the night season." 
The imagination can easily picture the sepulchral edifice, 
with its Gothic arches, armorial insignia, and mortuary 
carvings, lit up by torches, and the mourning groups of 
kindred and vassals committing to the dust the tender 
flower which had so recently been blooming among them. 
Many such blossoms, early nipped from the same famihar 
stem, have since been laid there beside Earl Charles ; and 
they will one day arise along with him, all together, a fair 
young company, to a fuller and maturer bloom, at the 
summons to their Redeemer's kingdom. 

At the moment when the news of Earl Charles's death 
reached Baxter, he was putting the finishing touch to his 
treatise on the " Divine Life," one of his most excellent 
works, and which was founded upon and an enlargement of 



64 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

the sermon he had preached at Lady Balcarres's request on 
her departure from London, as previously stated. He now 
prefixed to it, as pubHshed, a beautifiil address to her of 
consolation on the loss of her son. 

Lady Balcarres again wrote to Lauderdale on the 24th 
of February in the ensuing year, 1663 ; and it appears by 
her letter (unless her informant was mistaken), that the 
account she had sent him of her son's death had never 
reached his hands, although that account is in fact preserved 
among the Lauderdale papers lately acquired by the British 
Museum. Her letter shows {inter alia) that difficulties of a 
more urgent kind, and of older standing than those dwelt 
upon in her letter of the 4th July previously, were beginning 
to press upon her : — 

''My Lord, 

" I wrote to your Lordship not long ago a long letter of all 
concerns me, and it's lost by the misfortune this poor boy had by sea ; 
yet I resolved to send him again that I may by him hear from your 
Lordship, and also let you know all the difficulties and straits I am put 
to by reason of the debt contracted in England, Holland, and when I 
was last in Scotland, which is almost all to pay yet. Here I must 
again tell your Lordship that my Lord Kellie told me that which vexed 
me, which was that your Lordship had neither had mine, wherein I 
gave you an account of my dear child's sickness and death, wherein I 
enclosed some epitaphs was made upon him,* nor that where I said 
somewhat of the great sense I had of your Lordship's not only making 
most of my afflictions your own, but that you had made some of my 
debt yours till God enable me to pay it. Though you had neither of 
them, I hope you did not think of me that I appeared to be, which 
was, a person very unworthy of the many testimonies of your kindness 
and favour I and mine have had from you. Here I could say a great 
deal, but I will iiut, lest you think I say somewhat like that the world 
calls compliment. I will say nothing, but will leave the rich God to 
be your rich rewarder. Whatever my misfortunes make me appear to 
be, I beg your Lordship never to be so unjust to me as not to think I 
bear that in my heart to you I justly owe you, and ever bear you in all 

* Probably elegiac verses, such as were frequently consecrated to 
the memory of friends in any way remarkable at that time. The 
" epitaphs " here in question have been lost. 



Memoir of Lady Amia Mackenzie, 65 

conditions of our life. My low condition makes me say little because 
I can do nothing but trouble my friends I would account no small 
blessing to ^erve. 

** So long as it is in my mind I must break off my saying somewhat 
like thanks, and tell you, though I will not the least quarrel, that I 
think it very long since I heard from your Lordship, and can bear 
other's unkindness better than your silence; and that some that's here 
sometimes hear from you often and I never a word made my heart very 
great ; and when I have been, as I was this last summer, little . 
fight the combat for some of my friends, I never had a word to satisfy 
me, — and I shall never believe but you thought I was more concerned 
for you by far than those you took the pains to satisfy and to write to. 
This, I hope, will be taken but for a kind challenge, as it is indeed 
without any design but that I may have the comfort to know sometimes 
your Lordship is as I should wish you. There is sometimes stories 
invented to your prejudice, which I have nothing to contradict but that 
I knew long ago, and to which I always trusted, which was. His 
Majesty's justice and kindness to you, and that o^^Tied faithfulness to 
him for whom you have suffered so much. I could hardly think he 
would ha' rewarded you for being two years almost blind in a dungeon 
for him at Portland, he would ha' sent you out of his dominions to see 
light, as was told us. It's no disparagement to your king and master 
to say you have a greater to trust to, to whom you are dear, and who 
will have a care of you when pleasures and flesh fails you — even He 
that has washed you in His blood, and redeemed you, when He will let 
others perish in their ignorance. ' I honour them that honour me ! ' 
Oh, my dear Lord, forgive me, that cares you with my heart and soul, 
if I beg of you to know and honour Him, being an example to others ; 
and let nothing hinder you from paying that worship is due for one 
that I am sure is His to pay to Him. All creatures live in a kind of 
unquiet fever but those that only strive to please God and be at peace 
with Him. That . . . and all things else may make me ashamed to 
write to you. You know well the heart from whence it comes, and 
that I am not ignorant of the many temptations you have to give little 
of your time to your blessed Creator and Redeemer, to whom it is due. 
When time is looked back upon, it is sweet and comfortable to think 
of those hours we have spent in communion with the Father and the 
Son, and in a blessed and sweet intercourse with heaven. 

' ' I must end this as I begun. Forgive it ; for it's not that I have 
the least doubt of your failing in doing what you should do ; but that 
I may show my desire to have them I love on earth along with me in 
heaven, where we shall part no more. Heaven bless you ! And the 
great and good God make you as happy here and hereafter as my daily 
prayer wishes you ! 

F 



66 Memoir of Lady A^ina Mackenzie, 

" I would make apology for this I send you, that will take up too 
much of your time, but that I have not will, by excusing myself, to 
make it greater ; so I will say no more, but put all I would say in a 
memorandum, — only [I would] let you know I got none of my pension, 
which I believe you know not ; and, if my difficulties and straits and 
burdens is become too heavy for my estate and, I may say, for my heart 
to bear, had I not got a good and tender-hearted reconciled God to go 
to, I could not but succumb. I do not complain to none but your 
Lordship, who, I know, will fittingly consider ... as much as 
you can. I have said somewhat to my Lord Treasurer, whose absence 
is, I know, prejudicial to me. Sure he will refuse your Lordship 
nothing. I should be glad your Lordship would agree for a sure pen- 
sion to me with the Treasurer, so I give down two or three hundred 
pounds. Your Lordship do in this as you please. I pray you, my 
Lord, let me hear from you. The Lord of Heaven and Earth be with 
you, and bless, direct, and protect you, is the prayer of 
" Your most affectionate Cousin 

' ' and humble servant, 

*'Anne Balcarres." 

* ' Pray, my Lord, forgive the writ of this ; for the whole grammar- 
school almost was in the hall, that I knew hardly for their noise what I 
was writing." 

The predominant feeling in this letter is evidently a 
sense of pain at having received no communication from 
Lauderdale, a suspicion of neglect which to a heart like 
hers, " overmuch affectionate to her friend," as Baxter 
describes it, was peculiarly painful. Lauderdale, engrossed 
with laborious anH constant work as Secretary of State for 
Scotland, had in fact but Httle time for private correspond- 
ence ; but he repUed kindly ; and the next letter in the 
series expressed her regret for the momentary impatience ; 
but the distance between them began from this time to 
widen morally as well as physically through absence ; and 
it ended, I fear, at last, though not for some years, in a 
confirmed estrangement. 

*' Balcarres, nth of April. 

" My dear Lord, 

' ' Yours did most exceedingly satisfy me. How unfortunate 
soever I may appear to myself in many things, yet I shall never think 
I am really so so long as God Almighty gives me my best friends, and 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 6^ 

that they are well and not changed to me. I bless God, my heart 
tells me it k not guilty of any breach to them ; but merely melancholy 
makes me so. However in my last I see it's made me mightily trans- 
gress. I confess it is no wondering if a great temper be displeased 
when their friends they upon all occasions does oblige does ever call in 
question their good will, when inability is only in the fault. If ever I 
have said anything like this, it's my want of words to express my mind 
has been the cause of it ; for sure I never had the least thought of 
it ; only, as I said before, I confess my melancholy made me a little 
jealous you had a little forgot me ; but, pray, my dear Lord, forgive 
me all my faults and I shall easily forgive you all yours I did quarrel 
with you for, so you will let me hear but once a month from you, were 
it but three words, not a full line — *I am well and as you wish me.' 
I pray the Lord bless, direct, and have a care of you ; for so wishes 
she with all her heart, who is, my dear Lord, 

" Your most affectionate serv^ant, 

*' Anne Balcarres. 

" I sent the physician's paper* once to your Lordship already, which 
you desire. I have sent to him for another ; if it come in time, I shall 
enclose it here ; if it come not, my Lady Rothes will convey it to your 
Lordship. Pray, my Lord, present my kindest respects to my Lady, 
and my Lady Mary, and Lady Lorn." 

It is in these letters to Lauderdale that we find the 
principal materials for the Countess Anna's history during 
the years immediately succeeding the Restoration. The 
next in the series may be passed over briefly, — it was 
written on the report reaching her of " my dear Lord Craw- 
ford's" probable resignation of the Treasurership through 
the cabals of his enemies, and in which she makes amends 
for her previous discontent with him, — the parenthesis, " I 
see he remembers my dearest with great kindness," suggest- 
ing the keynote of her returning affection ; while she also 
says that " he has been and is my most kind friend." But 
a letter to the King, dated the i6th November, and another 
to Lauderdale, enclosing it, are worth insertion, both as 
eminently characteristic of the writer and as carrying on 
her story. It seems that some time previously the King 
had promised her the value of the fine imposed on Sir 

* The report respecting her" son Earl Charles's illness. 



68 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

James Macdonald^s estate, to which and to the punctual 
payment of her pension she looked forward as the means 
of diminishing debt and preserving her son^s patrimony of 
Balcarres. She wrote to the King thus : — 

'' Balcarres, the 1 6th of November. 

" May it please your Majesty, 

*'When I represent your Majesty, after so marv^ellous a 
restoration, sitting upon the throne in peace, I cannot but with joy 
render thanks to God, who hath let my eyes see what I begged from 
Him for your Majesty when your enemies bore down all before them ; 
so I crave leave of your Majesty once more from my solitude to express 
to your Royal self my fresh resentment thereof, and so much the rather 
because your Majesty's favour to me hath been so great ; for no sooner 
did your Majesty enjoy your own but your royal bounty did show itself 
towards me and the children of your faithful, loyal, constant servant, 
now in glory, by which you did manifest what your Majesty would 
have done to himself if he had survived the troubles. Your Majesty 
did settle on me and my sons a pension of a thousand pounds out of 
the Exchequer of Scotland, and did graciously promise to me, in place 
of Sir James Macdonald's fine, the value of it ; which, as they witness 
your princely bounty and favour to the memory of your dead servant, 
and lay strong obligations of duty and gratitude upon a desolate widow 
and her fatherless children, so they do embolden me in all humility to 
inform your Majesty of the bad payment of the money, not through 
the fault of your Majesty's Treasurers, my friends, but the exhausting 
of the Treasury otherways ; and if your Majesty would be pleased, in 
your time and way, compassionately to remember . . . without 
which this poor family and estate cannot be preserved from sinking, 
the particulars of my petition and request I have desired the Earl 
of Lauderdale to declare unto your Majesty, — being well assured that 
I cannot but be happy if your Majesty knew but my condition and 
the remedy of it — who is the only woman of my nation did run through 
the world after your Majesty, — and, I may say, out of mere duty and 
love to your person we did it. 

*' May it please your Majesty to pardon and excuse this my poor 
address, and I shall not cease, according to my duty, to pray for all 
blessings of Heaven and Earth upon your Majesty. 
" May it please your Majesty, 

'* Your Majesty's most humble, most obedient, 
most dutiful, most affectionate subject 
and 'servant, 

*'Anne Balcarres." 



Memoir of Lady A7i7ia Mackenzie, 69 

The letter to Lauderdale here follows — the date, as I 
mentioned, is the same with that of the preceding letter : — 

«' My Lord, 

*- According to your advice I have written to His Majesty in 
general of my condition, having left the particulars to be by your 
Lordship represented to him, which are, if you would please to desire 
his Majesty out of the fines to grant me the value of Sir James Mac- 
donald's fine, which was ^5000, which he promised me, without which 
your Lordship knows what a deplorable condition this estate and family 
is in ; and that, for the better payment of my pension, you would 
desire his Majesty to let it be either drawn upon the excise, or some 
locality appointed me ; but, if none of this be feasible, that his Majesty 
would write a letter to the Exchequer according to your own effectual 
wording of it, that it may be surely paid. Some makes me believe 
that, if your Lordship do not somewhat to secure me, it will be but 
little worth. I confess I listened to what they said with the more 
dread that, when you was in Scotland, I could not prevail, at my 
earnest desire, to get £70 when I was in so great a strait as it forced 
me to leave all my writs here and there, as we say, for want of money, 
and yet is not able to relieve them. . . Most of this year's rent I was 
forced to spend. I have not [wherewith] to pay . . my servant's wages, 
nor my house I had at St. Andrews, nor to keep my son there. 

* ' My Lord, I will say no more, knowing the way you will take 
will be that you think most for my advantage, according to the entire 
confidence I have in your love and kindness to, my Lord, 
Your most affectionate Cousin 

'•'• and humble servant, 

*'Anne Balcarres." 

" Pray, my dear Lord, present my most humble service to my 
Lady, and my Lady Mary. I have not had a word from my Lord 
Treasurer since I saw you. I pray, my Lord, seal this" [i.e. the enclosed 
letter) " with a common seal, — none of your known inscriptions." 

It appears from this letter that Lady Balcarres had 
been living at St. Andrews for the education of her son, 
Earl Colin. Her allusion to him would seem to have 
struck a kindly chord in Lauderdale's heart, for about two 
months afterwards he sent him his first sword as a kins- 
man's gift, which Colin acknowledged in a few lines, 
written in his schoolboy's hand, still extant amongst the 
grave state papers and letters of the Scottish minister, and 



70 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

which already bear the stamp of the youth's chivah*ous 
character : — 

Balcarres, 23d Jan. 1664. 
"My Lord, 

" I have with no small contentment girded your Lordship's 
present to my side, and shall use it in my Sovereign's and your service ; 
for, if by his Royal bounty and your Lordship's endeavours it be not 
prevented, the law will not suffer me so to employ it in the defence of 
any such thing which I might call an inheritance. I do therefore with, 
thankfulness embrace your sword as an addition to your former favours 
and an earnest of your future care of, my Lord, 

'* Your Lordship's most humble and obliged servant, 

" Balcarres." 

But Lady Balcarres' s appeal produced more than the 
mere gift in question ; for a royal mandate was issued on 
the 13th February 1664, addressed to the Treasurer Rothes 
(now the successor to his father-in-law, Crawford-Lindsay), 
directing that Lady Balcarres's and other pensions (pay- 
ment of which had hitherto, it is stated, been restricted to 
one half only of what was due) should hencefonvard be 
paid " completely," — and I have no doubt therefore that 
she received a present supply, although payment in full 
was still delayed, as it will appear, for at least two years 
more, the Exchequer being still in a most exhausted 
condition. 

A letter addressed by the Countess Anna about this 
time, " A Madame, Madame Henderson," the wife, but 
then the widow, of another of the Fordell family of which 
I have spoken previously, reflects, if I mistake not, the 
influence of the cheering intervention just mentioned : — 

'' Balcarres, the 28 of March, old style [1664]. 
*' Dear Madam, 

' ' I have received the favour of yours with no small satisfac- 
tion, since it brought me the good news of your being in health, and 
your sweet child. I pray God continue it. Dear Madam, I am so 
exceeding obliged to you for all your civilities, favours, and kindness 
that I know not which way to begin to express my resentment of them, 
that you have been at such pains for me, and sent me all things in such 
order. Oh ! how happy should I think myself if I or any of my rela- 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 7 1 

tions could serve or be useful to your Ladyship ! If you think we 
could, you tiave no more to do but to let me receive your commands, 
and I shall do about them with the greatest joy and willingness 
imaginable, for I should think it a blessing to be useful to you. It is a 
great addition to my many obligations to you. Madam, that you are so 
sensibly concerned for the loss of my dear child, — had I thought your 
Ladyship had been at the Hague, I had let you know of the great loss 
I have sustained of so excellent, so wise, so pious a child. I ought not 
to complain, but to bless my blessed Maker and Redeemer that made 
me the mother of a saint He fitted for glory before He took him there. 
He that's good and does good does all well He does to me and mine; 
He takes them from misery to be blessed and for ever with Himself 

" I am exceeding sorry to hear you have a load above a burden, 
not only the loss of a kind husband but to be left in so bad a condition. 
Blessed be our God, that has forewarned us that we are through many 
tribulations to enter heaven ; and it's a covenanted blessing, suffering, 
for it's given us not only to believe but also to suffer. You know I am 
not ignorant what the heart and state of a widow is, being as much so 
as ever any was. I strive to encourage myself in God, who is the God 
of the widow and the fatherless, and who has said enough to make 
them rest upon his care, who is God over all, but rich to all that call 
upon him. He taketh pleasure in them that fear him and trusts in his 
mercy. 

' ' Madam, I have received my beds and books, and also what you 
was at the pains to pay for me. The three porcelain pots I like very 
well ; they come safe. So did the other twenty pots, but they were all 
empty. I had some hopes your Ladyship should have procured some 
flowers from Madame Sommerdyck, and those that had gardens. I 
was so liberal when I had abundance, makes me have the fewer now. 
If there be any of the little money left your Ladyship did me the 
favour to cause buy these things with, bestow it all upon some plain 
cold gilded leather, — those kind that were plain, as I remember, was 
not so dear as the wrought leather ; they were 28st the piece. I know, 
if you have any money, it will buy but few. 

" Dear Madam, fail not in your promise to send me Monsieur 
Henderson and your picture, if you have them by you. I am sorry to 
put you to expence for me, though I desire them as much as I can do 
anything. Coronell Henderson told he had spoke to his sister, Madame 
Stencalven for her picture to me, and told her that I desired it, and he 
said she promised to send it to him to send me. I pray you, Madam, 
write to her of it, that I still make it my desire, and shall think it a 
great favour if she will send it me. She had let them have it that 
has not such relation to her as this family has. 

' ' I saw all my friends in Kellie ; they are all very well, I thank God ; 



72 Memoir of Lady A^ina Mackenzie, 

and my good Lady is the best woman in the world ; she is so sweet an 
humour that we think ourselves happy in her ; and my Lord and she 
loves other so much that they are both wonderful happy in other. 

** It's time now I should make an end, so will say no more but en- 
treat you to believe I am unalterably, Dear Madam, 

** Your Ladyship's affectionate Cousin and humble servant, 

" Anne Balcarres. 

'*Pray, Madam, do me the favour to present my kind respects to 
Madame de Sommerdyck and her daughter, the Countess of Kincardine. 
I wonder I have not heard from none of them. If Madame Sommer- 
dyck will not let me have my pictures, I shall think she thinks me not 
worth so great a favour. My blessing to your sweet child ! " 

During the eleven months succeeding the date of this 
letter matters remained much as they had done pre- 
viously ; but a letter from the Treasurer Rothes to Lauder- 
dale, of the last of February 1665, gives intimation of an 
advance towards a settlement of the long-pending Seaforth 
claims : — " For news," he says, " my Lady Balcarres and 
my Lord Seaforth are agreed, and I think, in all, better 
secured than ever." But, as I have already stated, it was 
some time yet before the final settlement took place. Part 
of the arrangement then made appears to have been that 
such share of the fines levied upon the Cromwellite 
offenders as might fall to Seaforth should be assigned by 
him to Lady Balcarres. 

Meanwhile considerably more than a twelvemonth had 
run on, and the Countess Anna's heart began again to 
hunger for some communication from her husband's and 
her own friend and kinsman of other days ; and she sat 
down accordingly, at Balcarres, on the nth of April, to 
endeavour to elicit some little token of remembrance. She 
wrote as follows : — 

** My dear Lord, 

* ' I did once in my life scarce suppose, if living where within 
five days I might hear from you, that two years should run on without 
receiving a line from you. This your silence I am loath to impute to 
forgetfulness, unkindness, or any bad impression of me others have 
endeavoured to put upon you, but rather to your owning me as one of 



Memoir of Lady Anna Macke^izie, 73 

your o^\Ti, and to the multitude and greatness of your affairs, and your 
being unwilling, as some others has informed me, to write till some 
considerable business for me by your means had been done. My dear 
Lord, as I incline not to rash jealousy of my friends in general, so far 
less of you in particular, whom my dear Lord did, and I still, love so 
much, and who hath showed so much [love] to us. It's true I have 
often longed to have heard from you, and would gladly have accepted 
the least line from you, that I might have satisfied my own fear of a 
change in your affection, and assured others who have marvelled at 
your seeming not-remembrance of me. But it shall be far from me to 
have so unworthy a thought of you, as if you had forgot the widow and 
fatherless in their affliction, being all the pledges your dear Gossip has 
left behind him in this world. Therefore I have given way to my 
affection at this time, once more to solicit you, not so much in behalf 
of mine and my son's affairs (now being, in appearance, the critical 
time of the mending of his low condition), as to draw from your Lord- 
ship some small epistle as a token of your unchanged love and 
remembrance. I had written to you on the death of your sweet 
nephew, as I did to my Lady ; but the consciousness of my own 
inability and the knowledge I have of you made me forbear,-— having 
also during his sickness discharged that duty of a cousin.^ More I 
will not add, but to assure your Lordship of my unalterable love to 
you (though little worth) and my daily prayer for you, as becometh, 
my Lord, 

" Your Lordship's most affectionate Cousin 
' ' and most humble servant, 

*' Anne Balcarres." 

Neither this, however, nor two other letters written 
later in the year received any reply. I shall subjoin them 
without further remark : — 

" Balcarres, the 3d of July. 
*' My Lord, 

*' I hear by one that is come from London that there is a 
list made [of those] that has a share in the fines and that my cousin 
Seaforth and I is only put out. I confess it was bad news to me, 
whose heart, alas ! it too much pressed with a heavy burden of my 
poor fatherless children and most dreadful covetous creditors. Though 
I had great hopes of his Majesty's bounty to me, and now am made 

* The nephew here referred to was the young Laird of Lundin 
(now Lundie), younger son of Lauderdale's brother, Robert Maitland, 
by the heiress of the Lundins of that ilk, in Fifeshire. He died in 1664. 



74 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

believe I only am left out, I shall say nothing. Lord God Almighty 
bless him, and keep him in life and health, and prosper all his affairs ! 
Whatever I suffered for him was but my duty. I repent it not. I 
. wish this family was as able to serve him as at first. We want not 
good will. Nor can I think, when I remember what I know his Majesty 
[to be], but that he will still retain his wonted goodness to me, and 
do somewhat for me, now when I so much need it. My Lord, I do 
verily believe your Lordship did all you could for me. I pray that 
good God reward you, that I doubt not will pity and provide for me, 
as He has done all my life, and in strange countries when I knew not 
where to get bread next day. I am, my Lord, 

" Your Lordship's affectionate and humble servant, 

"Anne Balcarres. 

" My children are well, I bless God; they are all your servants. 
Sophia is at Edinburgh, with my Lady Rothes. I would take it for 
an inestimable favour to hear from your Lordship." 

The second letter is dated on the 9th of August. 

«* My Lord, 

'' I have a long time forborn to trouble your Lordship by 
letter, knowing your many employments, and hoping that you would 
not for that less remember me and my dear Lord's family ; but now, 
being informed that after this Convention, and the new taxation there- 
by imposed, that the fines are to be distributed, and that my Lord 
Commissioner has written to Court about my pension, and has like- 
wise promised to do as to the fines, it is my earnest desire that as your 
Lordship . . . and care for me and my fatherless children, that you 
would speak to his Majesty for us, that I may have a new precept for 
my pension and at least a proportional share of the fines — if not ac- 
cording to the full of what his Majesty promised, yet as much as may 
rid me out of my present many sad processes under which I lie through 
endeavouring the good of his posterity who said at his death your 
Lordship would have more care of them and me than all the world 
beside, if you had it in your power. My present earnestness and im- 
portunity I hope you will pardon, seeing it proceeds from a sense of 
my mean condition and this distressed family, and a fear lest the many 
other claims of a share of such a small sum as they say the fines 
amounts to jostle me out, unless your Lordship effectually interpose. 
I cannot say but that the Commissioner is very civil to me, and pro- 
mises to Mr. Drummond (that's been with him) to interest himself in 
my concerns. My Lord, it is in your love and kindness I confide ; 
and I have raised my hopes that at length I shall receive something by 
your means that will witness you as still mindful of the dead and kind 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 



/ :> 



unto the living. The Lord be with you, and preserve you, wherever 
you are. 'My Lord, 

'* Your Lordship's affectionate humble servant, 

"Anne Balcarres." 

*' Your Lordship, I believe, remembers that Seaforth spoke to you 
for a share of the fines. It is like he may be forgot and put off, to 
have somewhat out of somewhat else from his Majesty. All I shall 
say is, that I have it under his hand, with witnesses, that what he gets 
of the fines I shall have it ; but if he get never so much that has any 
other name, I shall not get a farthing. I know it was your Lordship's 
kindness to me that made you promise to him, and if your Lordship 
should get him anything, it would be a great obligation lying upon him 
to your Lordship, though mine would be more. For God's sake mind 
this poor child, and think you see his mother and him sinking, and 
crying out, and struggling for life and help ! " 

Still, however, there came no answer from Lauderdale ; 
and Lady Balcarres began to think that evil tongues had 
been at work in misrepresenting her towards her early 
friend. She wrote therefore once more to him in October. 
Wounded affection and indignant pride speak in every 
line of her letter ; but the mother's love and yearning for 
her children's welfare overpowered every other considera- 
tion ; and, I am happy to say, the spell of her strong 
passion broke down for a time the barrier of silence that 
had grown up between herself and him : — 

" Balcarres, 9th October. 
**My Lord, 

" The day was, it was a satisfaction to me to write to the 
Earl of Lauderdale, because he was pleased sometimes to say it was so 
to him ; but now, your Lordship interesting yourself so little for me 
and mine as not so much as to see your hand-writ in three years, nor 
to find any way that you mind us, I cannot but fear my friendship has 
become a burden, and so, I confess, it is with some pain I give you 
this trouble. I have been often going to ask your Lordship if ever I 
did in the least offend you or did anything unworthy of the friendship 
you once was pleased to allow me. If I have, I shall say I justly de- 
serve to suffer what I do by your coldly interesting yourself for me ; 
but, my Lord, I can take Him to witness that is in heaven, and that's 
to be my judge, that I have ever borne that constancy of affection to 
you I ought to have done, and has not in the least wronged you, nor 



T6 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

has there been the least diminution of my concernment for your happi- 
ness, esteem, and welfare — notwithstanding I could not keep myself 
from being jealous of your kindness to me. I shall never let it enter 
into my heart — if it is your want of virtue to forget your dead friend 
that was so concerned for you and your family, or that you fear to own 
his interest — if that once entered in my heart, I could not think so 
worthily of you as now I do. No, I lay it all upon myself, who, 
though I deserve not coldness from you, yet does it more than the 
friend that is in heaven. 

'' My Lord, if any has tattled ill of me, as there is abundance such 
to do good offices among friends, I pray let me know, and if I satisfy 
you not, punish me if guilty, — but what has these "poor lambs done, 
my Lord Balcarres' children, who are looked upon by all as helpless 
and friendless ? I shall crave your pardon ; but, whatever you do, I 
shall ever love you, pray for you, wish you well. Though I have 
said that may be misunderstood, as if I thought nothing of what you 
have done — no, my Lord, I remember it often, and [am] not so base as 
to be ingrate. There is some things that makes me appear unfor* 
tunate, but there is nothing in my eyes makes me appear so but that 
my Lord Balcarres' children are unfortunate. I may say in that I am 
unhappy, but were it not for them, I thank God, no singular frown of 
the greatest upon earth could make me esteem myself so, because I 
trust and rely in a good God, that has cared for me and fed me all my 
life, and will be my purveyor for ever. 

" My Lord, I desire you, among the rest of my faults, to forgive 
the length of this ; for I am, my Lord, 

" Your Lordship's most affectionate humble servant, 

"Anne Balcarres." 

Enclosed with this letter, or sent more probably by the 
same messenger, Earl CoHn, his mother's httle champion of 
thirteen, addressed a few Hnes to Lauderdale, which could 
not, I think, have been read without sympathy : — 

*'Oct. 9th, 1665. 
''My Lord, 

' ' I know I have no merit of my own to make your Lordship 
do anything for me, so it must be merely your goodness must make you 
have any care for me. I know, were I a man, I must take my sword 
in my hand, ane beggar ; but that troubles me not so much as the 
trouble I see my mother in for me. If your Lordship will be pleased 
to be so good to remember me to the King's Majesty, who, I hear, 
promised my mother somewhat, which, if she get it, I will look upon 
as given to me. If God make me a man worthy to ser^^e your Lord- 



Memoir of Lady A^ina Mackenzie, yy 

ship, you shall find me dedicate myself to your sen-ice, next to that of 
my prince.* I am more ways than one obliged to be, my Lord, 
*' Your most humble servant, 

*' Balcarres." 

The result of Lady Balcarres's letter was, I suspect, a 
severe, but I trust not an unkindly scold, from Lauderdale, 
delayed indeed for some months, and to which she replied 
on the 19th of March 1666, enclosing a letter to the King, 
written at Lauderdale's request, as a memorial of her claims. 
It appears from her letter to Lauderdale that Seaforth had 
obtained his share of the fines ; but how that part of the 
arrangements between them terminated I do not know. To 
King Charles she wrote as follows : — 

'' Balcarres, the 2nd of March. 

*' May it please your Majesty, 

*' I have had such large and frequent testimonies of your 
Majesty's gracious condescension and favour towards me at all times, 
I am encouraged at this time, amidst your Majesty's great affairs, 
humbly to make known to your Majesty my own and the distressed 
condition of this family. It is true, and I do humbly acknowledge, 
your Majesty, in consideration of our condition, was pleased to grant 
me an yearly pension, but of that I have still owing me ^4000 ; and 
your Majesty did likewise promise to me, and I suppose to my Lord 
Chancellor of England, who was pleased to speak to your Majesty for 
me, that I should have the value of Sir James Macdonald's fine, which 
waS;^5000, towards the repairing of this ruined estate, occasioned by 
the great debt lying thereon, contracted by my husband in carrying on 
of your Majesty's service, as my Lord Secretary can more particularly 
inform. Hitherto I have rested in great confidence of your Majesty's 
goodness and bounty, but now, being informed by some here that your 
Majesty is disposing the fines, I hope your Majesty will pardon me if 
I offer also humbly to supplicate for so much of them as your royal 
bounty will bestow and the sad and necessitous condition of this family 
calls for ; that thereby your Majesty's goodness to those who have 
willingly, and out of love to your person only, have suffered for you 
may be extolled, and my poor son in time enabled to serve your 
Majesty, and myself further engaged to give you a widow's blessing. 
I humbly entreat your Majesty, when you read this, to think you see 
me lying at your feet, beseeking [you] to have pity on me and my 
fatherless children, who can go to none to help us from perishing but 
your Majesty, who is my King, from whom I expect all that's good. 
The great God will, I hope, reward your Majesty a thousandfold for 



yS Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

what you do for me. That He may bless your Majesty, preserve your 
person, prosper all you take in hand, is the subject of the constant, 
daily, and earnest prayer of, 

'* May it please your Majesty, 

'•'■ Your Majesty's most affectionate, most faithful, and 
most humble and obedient subject and servant, 

"Anne Balcarres." 

The letter to Lauderdale goes more into particulars, 
and will, I think, like the preceding, be found of interest. 
The "late mortahty" alluded to is the Great Plague of 
London. 

" Balcarres, the 19th of March. 

*' My dear Lord, 

" Seeing your goodness has passed over what I vented in an 
embittered passion, I shall not insist in making apologies. He that is 
the searcher of all hearts knows what love my heart hath borne to you, 
far beyond all the kindred I had in the world, and how concerned I 
ever was for you, and (the Lord forgive me !) a disliker of all those 
was not your friends, as if they had been my greatest enemies. As I 
am convinced of my being, I am also that there is no decay at the root of 
your affection to me, though it seems there are obstructions that I did 
not imagine that hinder it from yielding that fruit this poor family 
stand most in need of; but I wish and trust that, as hitherto you have 
been shielded against violence, so you still have the favourable influence 
of his Majesty to the good of your country and friends. 

" My Lord, I am most sensible of this your advice, and therefore 
hath written the enclosed for his Majesty, which if it please you, I 
know you will make the best use of it you can ; and because I have 
endeavoured to be short, I have made bold to refer some particulars to 
your Lordship's information, which are — I have not yet got of five 
year and more above one year of my pension, so that the Exchequer is 
indebted to me ^4000 and upwards. My son's debts are so great 
that his annual-rents exhausts all his estate, and this year it will not 
pay the half of them. I have, with paying what my Lord owed 
abroad, and engaging myself to some of my son's creditors, to see if I 
could get anything left to him. But I see this estate will ruin unless I 
get something considerable from his Majesty for its relief, and my 
pension now duly paid me. Your Lordship remembers it was the 
value of Sir James Macdonald's fine which the King promised to 
Middleton that [he would] give me, and after to the Chancellor of Eng- 
land ; and because his daughter the Duchess* was then instrumental with 

* Anne, Duchess of York. 



Memoir of Lady Anna Macke7izie, 79 

her father to speak to his Majesty, I have at this time written to her 
also. If, , after your reading it, your Lordship judge it fit to cause 
Mr. Erskine or Sir Alexander Home deliver it, or by whom your 
Lordship pleases. I believe Mr. Erskine, if he get it, will pray the 
Duchess of Monmouth to give it. Your Lordship will think by this I 
am now a mere stranger to your Court. I would not willingly, by 
seeming to slight the Chancellor, give him occasion to oppose my 
desires ; for, I suppose by what your Lordship wrote of my Lord 
Newburgh, the King will speak to him before he grant them,— but 
this only if it needs, and may not reflect on your Lordship, for I had 
rather than fall into such an error run my hazard. Thus I deal fairly, 
and expect you will likeways do in this case ; for, as I said before, I 
am now such a stranger to Court, that I know not how to make my 
addresses right. This trouble I know your Lordship will accept. I 
do leave the success to Him in whose hands the hearts of kings are, 
and whose providence reacheth to the smallest things. If there be 
anything your Lordship would have mended in mine to the King, let 
me know and I shall write a new letter, unless there be haste required. 
I thank the Lord God that yourself, and Lady, and my Lady Mary 
and family have been preserved in the late mortality. That you may 
be kept from it and from all trouble is among the most earnest and 
hearty wishes of, my dear Lord, 

" Your Lordship's most affectionate servant, 

*'Anne Balcarres. 

" My Lord, the enclosed paper, being the Earl of Seaforth's grant 
of his share of the fines to my son's behalf, at my Cummer's desire, I 
send it to your Lordship. It being the original, I know your Lordship 
will make use of it to our advantage." 

The relief so long expected came at last, not long (I 
believe) after this communication; but with the present 
letter the correspondence between the Countess Anna and 
Lauderdale may be said to have ceased, at least on their 
old familiar footing of dear cousins and friends. Only one 
more letter of hers is preserved among the Lauderdale 
papers, written four years afterwards and belonging to a 
later stage in her history. Friendship can hardly survive 
protracted periods of silence and the shocks of expostula- 
tion, retort, and apology, such as we have just been privy 
to. It must be for the reader to judge, indeed, whether I 
should have inserted even so much of this correspondence 



8o Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

as I have here preserved. But to myself at least, and I 
believe to most men, there is a deep dramatic interest in 
the history of a human friendship, scarcely, if at all, inferior 
to that attaching to the old familiar tale of true love. The 
spectacle is, in fact, of much rarer occurrence, for love, in 
the ordinary sense of the word, is the daily bread, the life 
and salt of humanity ; but friendship, as conceived of and 
realised in its loftiest aspect, belongs rather to the selecter 
and finer spirits of creation. And as friendship is more 
ethereal in its essence than the love of the sexes, so is it 
more susceptible, irritable, and evanescent. It is for this 
reason that the examples of lofty and heroic friendship 
have been such favourites with the more generous portion 
of mankind from the times of the Greeks downwards. It 
was friendship, pure from every earthly stain, which sub- 
sisted between Our Blessed Saviour and the beloved 
disciple St. John. Friendship subsisted, as a bond of 
divine strength, between the knights of the times of chivalry ; 
it shone, like light reflected from a burnished shield, from 
the hearts of many of their successors in the sixteenth 
century ; and in the seventeenth, between the sufferers for 
the Stuarts, male and female, tied to each other by the 
remembrance of common sufferings in a common cause, 
friendship was a bond of closest union ; while between the 
sufferers and their Sovereign the self-same sentiment 
prevailed, investing the obligation of loyalty with the 
warmth of personal affection — which Charles II. in par- 
ticular, always mindful of the companions of his early and 
struggling years, cordially reciprocated. No one, as we 
shall find, appreciated the duties and the rights of a faithful 
friendship more justly and keenly than Lady Balcarres — 
that "woman of very strong love and friendship," as Baxter 
qualifies her. Lord Balcarres and herself. Sir Robert 
Moray, Lord Kincardine, Crawford-Lindsay, Rothes, and 
Lauderdale, formed a band of friends, akin to each other 
doubtless in blood, but more closely allied through sym- 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 8 1 

pathy than relationship ; and a warmth and freedom of 
intercourse subsisted between them, and indeed between 
themselves and the King, of which ample proof could be 
given. Lauderdale, after the Restoration, was the common 
centre and point of union of the survivors — Balcarres and 
Lauderdale had each been the other's dearest friend in 
youth — and the Countess Anna's jealousy for a friendship 
to which she had thus a double and indeed hereditary' 
claim was not unnatural. Possibly she may have been too 
exacting — I do not think so ; but her own words form her 
best apology. Their friendship was in its course like that 
of a noble stream, formed by the confluence of two fair 
rivers flowing on side by side within the same channel, but 
preserving their independence, commingling and yet not com- 
mingled, — their course and charity such that the spectator, 
beholding it, thought to see them peacefully discharge 
themselves through a common outlet into the ocean \ but, 
instead of this, a stage of stagnancy and indifference 
arrested them when it was least to be looked for — the 
" cataracts and breaks" of " humour" upheaved a ridge of 
misconception, unseen on the surface of the waters, but 
which, gradually increasing, determined their separation; 
and in the result they parted overtly, the two streams, the 
two friends, reaching the goal by different channels, if not 
in hostility, at least in alienation. It is one more version 
of an old story, and the experience of many hearts in the 
dechne of life will witness to its undying novelty and 
interest. But Lauderdale's kindness never (I should add) 
waned towards the young kinsman, to whom as a boy he 
had presented his first sword. Earl Colin ; and it will be 
felt, I think, that among many circumstances which will 
probably induce the world to think better of him ultimately 
than the report of current history would warrant, the strong 
affection and confidence with which he inspired such a 
woman as Lady Balcarres may be reckoned as furnishing a 
very strong presumption in his favour. 



82 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

A comparative calm of some years now followed, the 
first indeed of any duration that Lady Balcarres had enjoyed 
since her marriage, — and it had been reserved for her 
widowhood. She continued to reside with her children at 
Balcarres, superintending their education, gradually redeem- 
ing the estate, and reahsing more and more, as her circum- 
stances improved, the character of the " virtuous woman " 
whose " price is far above rubies," of the Book of Proverbs, — 
a character which few can exhibit so literally now-a-days^ in 
our less simple state of society. During these years she 
devoted herself to the task of buying up and extinguishing 
the incumbrances upon the estate of Balcarres by the help 
of her augmented income and a careful but not penurious 
economy ; and this she to a considerable extent effected. 
No one knew better than she did that economy is, with 
the large-hearted, the mother of liberahty; and thus — her 
days of wandering and humiliation over — she went on 
through life like a beneficent Ceres, bestowing gifts to 
the right and left, out of small means but with a royal 
hand, on all who had claims upon her, delighting in doing 
good. It was not however till 1669 that her long-deferred 
rights, her provision from the Seaforth inheritance as be- 
queathed to her by her father, were finally accorded and 
made payable to her son Earl Colin. By arrangements 
then entered into, and on the consideration of 5000 
marks paid down at once. Earl Colin, under his mother's 
tutory and direction, agreed to surrender his father's acquired 
rights over the estate of Seaforth on the security of a series 
of bonds by which the chieftains of the Mackenzies, Lord 
Tarbat, the Lairds of Suddie, Reidcastle, Applecross, Gare- 
loch, Coull, Hilton, Assynt, and others, together with Sir 
John Urquhart of Cromarty, made themselves responsible 
for the payment by instalments of sums of money amount- 
ing to above 80,000 marks, in hquidation of his claims. A 
long course of anxiety was thus brought to a happy deter- 
mination. 



Memoir of L ady A una Mackenzie. 8 3 

The years thus briefly characterised were, I doubt not, 
among the happiest, as they certainly were the most tranquil, 
the Countess Anna had enjoyed since her early youth. There 
is an inexpressible charm in the monotony of life, when the 
family circle is gathered together in peace and harmony, after 
long batthng with the winds and waves of fortune, — it is 
then that a " dinner of herbs" is felt to be far pleasanter 
than the banquets of kings. But the time arrives in every 
household when this happy monotony must be interrupted, — 
when the nestlings that have reached maturity take flight 
into the greater world, and the parent birds (there was, 
alas ! but one in this case) are left to mourn. It was either in 
1669 or 1670 that the Countess Anna's surviving son Colin 
— Earl of Balcarres since his brother's death — the httle man 
whose childish letters have already interested us — attained 
the age of sixteen years ; and she sent him up to London 
to pay his duty to the King. He took up his residence 
with his uncle Sir Robert Moray, and was presented to the 
King by Lauderdale. He was very handsome and per- 
sonally like his father ; Charles was pleased with his coun- 
tenance, said " he had loved his father and would be a father 
to him himself," and, as an earnest of his favour, gave him 
the command of a select troop of horse, composed of one 
hundred loyal gentlemen who had been reduced to poverty 
during the recent troubles, and who had half-a-crown a day 
as their military pay. 

A few days after his introduction at court, CoHn fell 
dangerously ill of a fever ; when, to the surprise and satis- 
faction of Sir Robert and ultimately of the young sufferer 
himself, messengers arrived almost hourly at Sir Robert's 
house to make inquiries after CoHn's health on behalf of a 
young Dutch lady. Mademoiselle Mauritia de Nassau, then 
residing with her elder sister Lady ArHngton, wife of the 
prime minister. These ladies, with a third sister Isabella, 
wife of the gallant Earl of Ossory, were daughters of Louis 
Count of Bevenvaert and Auverquerque, in Holland, by 



84 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

Elizabeth Countess of Horn. The young Mauritia had 
been present at Colin's first presentation at court, " and it 
seems/' to use his grandson's words, "he was agreeable to 
her." On his recovery Sir Robert sent him to pay his ac- 
knowledgments and respects to the young lady, and ere 
long the day was fixed for their marriage. The Prince of 
Orange, afterwards Wilham the Third, Lady Balcarres's 
quondam charge in 1659, and who was now, like the youth- 
ful bridegroom, just sixteen, presented his fair kinswoman 
with a pair of magnificent emerald earrings on this joyful 
occasion as his wedding-gift. Everything having been ar- 
ranged, the day of espousals arrived, the wedding party 
were assembled in the church, and the bride was ready for 
the altar; but, to the dismay of the company, no bride- 
groom appeared. He was but a boy after all, and the 
match had been made up, so far as he was concerned, as 
an affair of conve^iance or arrangement ; he had forgotten or 
miscalculated the day of his marriage, and was discovered 
in his nightgown and slippers, quietly eating his breakfast. 
Thus far the tale is told with a smile on the lip, but many 
a tear was shed at the conclusion. Colin hurried to the 
church, but in his haste left the ring in his escritoire ; a 
friend in the company gave him one ; he put his hand be- 
hind his back to receive it ; the ceremony went on, and, 
without looking at it, he placed it on the finger of his fair 
young bride, — it was a mourning ring, with the mort-head 
and crossed bones, the emblems of mortality; on per- 
ceiving it at the close of the ceremony she fainted away, and 
the evil omen had made such an impression on her mind 
that, on recovering, she declared she should die within the 
year, and her presentiment was too truly fulfilled. She died 
in childbed less than a twelvemonth afterwards. 

The only surviving relic of this union — '^ too unadvised, 
too sudden," as it truly was — is the following letter, written 
in French, and which was addressed by the ill-fated Mauritia 
to her husband's mother soon after the nuptials, in return 



Memoir of Lady Amia Mackenzie, 85 

for a kind letter which the Countess Anna had written to 
her on the occasion : — 

" Madam, 

** I know not in what terms to render you my very humble 
thanks for your goodness in writing me so obliging a letter. I assure 
you, Madam, that I am grateful for it as I ought to be, and that my Lord 
Balcarres could not have espoused any one who would endeavour more 
than I will do to seek out occasions for meriting your friendship, and 
whereby to testify to you in every manner of opportunity that amount of 
respect and submission with which I am. Madam, 

" Your very humble and obedient daughter and servant, 

*' Maurisce de Balcarres." * 

Mauritia, I may add, had a dowry of sixteen thousand 
pounds, part of which her husband contributed (as I have 
stated in a former page) to the payment of a portion of the 
debt incurred by his father during the late Civil War. 

From this time forward Earl Colin's fortunes ran their 
separate course, in a channel apart from that of his mother 
and his sisters, although they warmly loved each other through 
life. He was launched on the world, and is henceforward, 
properly speaking, as the writers of the old Sagas would 
say, '' out of the story," except in so far as he comes into 
contact from time to time with the proper subject of it, his 
mother. I will only therefore repeat that Charles II. con- 
tinued till his death to take a warm interest in " Colin," as 
he always called him, various instances of which are given 
in the " Lives of the Lindsays," while similar kindness was 
shown him by Charles' successor James 11. His friendship 

* " Madame, 

* ' Je ne S9ais en quels termes vous rendre tres humbles graces 
de la bonte que vous avez eu de m'ecrire une lettre si obligeante. Je 
vous assure, Madame, que j'en ai la reconnaissance que je dois, et que 
Milord Balcarres n'aurait pu epouser une personne qui tachera plus 
que je ferai a chercher les occasions de meriter votre amitie et a vous 
temoigner en toute sorte de rencontre avec combien de respect et de 
soumission je suis, 
*' Madame, 

" Votre tres humble et obeissante fille et sen^ante, 

" Maurisce de Balcarres." 



86 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

with William Prince of Orange likewise continued till the 
Revolution, when in an interview with William on the 
arrival of the latter in London, he told him that, with all his 
good will for himself personally, he could not forsake one 
who, in spite of many errors, had been " a kind master to 
him." When James II. fled to France, he left Colin in charge 
of his civil, and Dundee, or Claverhouse, of his mihtary 
affairs in Scotland. Dundee fell at Killiecrankie. Colin 
was imprisoned in the Castle of Edinburgh and, after his 
release, followed King James abroad, and remained in exile, 
at St. Germains and in Holland, for many years. He 
joined the insurrection in 1715, when an old man, was 
pardoned afterwards (as I shall have occasion to show) by 
the interest of the Dukes of Argyll and Marlborough, and 
died, aged more than seventy years, in 1722. 

Of Colin's two sisters, Sophia and Henrietta, whom he 
quitted, still young girls, when he started for the gay world 
of London in 1669, I shall speak presently. Their destiny 
took its colouring from their mother's character and subse- 
quent fortunes. These were about to undergo a change 
which transplanted them from 

" Fair Balcarres' sunward-sloping farms" 
and the associations of the eastern coast of Scotland to the 
romantic shores of Argyllshire and the territories of the 
Clan Campbell. 

I have incidentally mentioned Lord Lorn, the eldest 
son and successor of the Marquis of Argyll, as a contem- 
porary and friend of Alexander Lord Balcarres, and his and 
Lady Balcarres' associate in the Highland insurrection of 
1653. Restored to his ancestral estate and honours by 
Charles II. subsequently to his father's execution in 1661, 
he became a widower in 1668 j and two years afterwards, 
on the 28th of January 1670, Anna of Seaforth, Countess 
Dowager of Balcarres, became his second wife, her old 
friend Mr. David Forret performing the marriage cere- 
mony, " without proclamation," by Ucense from Archbishop 



Memoir of Lady Anna Macke^izie. 87 

Sharpe. , Various causes may have concurred to induce her 
to lend a favourable ear to Argyll's suit. There were points 
in his character amply sufficient to warrant warm affection. 
He was on friendly terms with Lauderdale, Rothes, Sir 
Robert Moray, and her other relations, and a supporter of 
the government. Her son's marriage, too, and establish- 
ment (as she doubtless anticipated) for life, was probably a 
strong motive ; for Balcarres would henceforward be the 
home of the young Earl and his bride, and she was too 
wise not to feel that it is better alike for parents and child- 
ren that young married people should begin life in absolute 
independence. She may also have wished to provide her 
daughters with a friend who might stand to them eventually in 
the place of their lost father, in times which were already 
beginning to be troublesome to those whose sympathies were 
certainly not with Episcopacy. It is true that, as she ar- 
ranged it, they were to reside with Earl Colin in the first 
instance ; but she doubtless expected that in course of time 
they would return to her own more natural protection ; and 
so, in fact, it turned out, although sooner and under more 
sorrowful circumstances than she had looked forward to. 
I may as well state here, although it is hardly necessary, 
that she had no children by this second marriage. Argyll 
had had several by the wife he had lost. 

Before taking this important step, the Countess Anna 
had brought everything connected with the estate of Bal- 
carres and her son's property into exact and careful order, 
making inventories of the various papers and documents 
with her own hand, and placing the whole economical details 
connected with the establishment on a sound and perma- 
nent footing, preparatory to making the whole over to him 
and his bride. She crowned her labour by addressing him, 
a few months after her marriage, and while there was yet 
hope of a prolonged and happy life for the ill-fated Mauritia, 
a long and admirable letter on the various subjects, moral, 
religious, political, and domestic on which she was anxious 



88 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

to impart to him (still, as he was, a mere youth, prematurely 
launched into manhood) the results of her wise experience. 
I cannot conclude this period in her life more fittingly than 
by some extracts from this letter, witnessing as it does, not 
only to the practical good sense which she applied to matters 
of every-day life, but to her noble appreciation of the great 
principles of charity and truth which are to be valued as things 
immortal, pertaining alike to yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 

"My dear Son," she begins, "we love our house, or 
land, or anything was our ancestors' more because it was 
theirs j so I expect that anything I can say to you will the 
more affect you because 'tis from your mother that loves 
you, wishes you well, and desires rather to see you a truly 
honest and virtuous man, fearing God, than possessor of all 
the riches the world can give. There are some that have 
power and riches ; much to be pitied are such lovers of 
pleasures, — they come to that, at last, they are troubled to 
hear anything that is not serious and which does not flatter 
them, though their actions merit reproof But I am re- 
solved neither to praise you, though I wish you may deserve 
it from others, nor reprove what I think amiss in you ; only 
will give you a motherly and hearty advice. 

" Because the interest of the soul is preferable to that 
of the body, I shall, first, desire you be serious in your 
religion, worshipping your God, and let your dependence 
be constantly upon Him for all things ; the first step in it 
is, to believe in God, that He made and upholds the 
universe in wisdom, in goodness, and in justice, — that we 
must adore, obey Him, and approve of all He does. The 
fear of God, says Solomon, is the beginning of knowledge ; 
He is ane buckler to all that walk uprightly. Dedicate 
some certain time every day for the service of your glorious 
Maker and Redeemer; in that, take a survey of your life, 
shorter or longer as the time will permit; thank him for 
making you what you are, for redeeming you, giving you 
His word and spirit, and that you live under the gospel, — 



Memoir of L ady A una Mackenzie, 8 9 

for all 'the faculties of your soul and body, that you was 
descended of Christian parents, — for your provisions, — for 
all you have in possession. Read — ^pray ; consider the life 
and death of your blessed Saviour and Lord, and your 
heart will be warmed with that love that is beyond expres- 
sion, that meekness and humility that endured the con- 
tradiction of sinners against Himself, — strive to be conform 
to Him ; no fraud, no guile, nor evil-speaking was found 
with Him, for all the injustice and wicked backbiting He 
met with j He was kind, doing always good ; He forgave, 
was patient in enduring injuries, was charitable. My dear 
son, the great work to which we are called is to be partakers 
of His holy harmless nature ; true religion stands in 
imitating of Him and converse with Him. ' Truly,' says the 
Apostle John, ' our fellowship is with the Father and the 
Son.' David says, ' Evening and morning and midday will 
I pray to Thee.' We have directions and examples in the 
Holy Word for what we should do ; we are told to watch 
and pray that we be not led into temptations (they are oft 
most afraid of them that are most resolved and best 
acquainted to resist them), — to implore His help for supply 
of grace or strength, or of what we need ; and to encourage 
us to it. He says none shall seek His face in vain. He 
gives us His holy word that we may daily read out of it 
divine lessons ; it is a lanthorn to our feet to walk cleanly, 
and sure it is for instruction and direction in righteousness j 
read often of the life and death of your Saviour ; read the 
books of Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, — for other 
books I would have you read those most that will make you 
know the Scriptures and your duty \ and yourself must make 
conscience of your duty to your particular relations." 

To his prince she inculcates loyalty and reverence, to 
his country love and protection, reminding him however 
that public characters are unhappy except in such times 
when virtue is loved for its own sake. " Strive," says she, 
" to enrich your mind with virtue, and let it be attended 
with the golden chain of knowledge, temperance, patience. 



90 Memoir of Lady Anna Macke^izie. 

godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity," — possessed of 
these, " though you were bereft of all the world can give 
you or take from you, you are justly to be accounted 
happy." 

Friendship she holds up as the choicest earthly blessing, 
but entreats her son to be wary whom he admits to intimacy. 
" Nothing delights the heart of any man more than faithful 
and trusty friendship, — to have one to whom we may safely 
impart our mind, whose counsels may advise us, whose 
cheerfulness may qualify our cares, who is free of covetous- 
ness and known vice ; for where the fear of God is not, and 
the practice of Christian virtues, that friendship cannot 
stand long ; there is certainly a secret curse on that friend- 
ship whereof God is not the foundation and the end. Let 
not the least jealousy of your faithful friend enter into 
your mind, but, whatever he do, think it was well intended ; 
in some cases it's better be deceived than distrust." 

Yet, " though friendship be the greatest solace of life, it 
proves not always firm enough to repose the soul absolutely 
upon. The fixedness of all things here below depends on 
God, who would have us to fix all our peace and content- 
ment, even this we enjoy in the creatures, on Himself. 
There is great reason for it. It's much if our friend's 
judgment, affection, and interest long agree ; if there be but 
a difference in any of these, it doth much to mar all, the 
one being constrained to love that the other loves not, — one 
of you may have a friend, whose favour may make great 
breaches, an Achitophel or a Ziba ; our Saviour had those 
who followed him for interest, that did soon forsake him, 
and turned his betrayers and enemies. If one of you be 
calmer nor the other, and allows not all the other does out 
of humour, this causes mistakes, — as a man is, so is his 
strength. A virtuous faithful friend, whose ways are ordered 
by God, who is of a sweet, equal, cheerful humour, not 
jealous, nor easily made to break the friendship he hath 
made on good grounds, which is understood to be kindled 
from heaven, is certainly the greatest jewel on earth. But 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 91 

if God 'SO dispose of it that your friends, though the nearest 
relations on earth, change to you, strive to be constant to 
them, and to overcome all with patience. Let meekness 
smoothe over all their passions ; espouse their interest ; 
pursue them with kindness and serviceableness of all kinds ; 
seek reconciliation on any terms \ amend what they think 
amiss. Let ingenuity be in all your words and actions : 
put on charity, which is the bond of perfection, which 
suffereth long, is kind, envieth not ; forbear upbraiding or 
repeating what you have done to oblige them, but look on 
what you do for your friends and their accepting of it as 
that wherefore you are most indebted to them ; from those 
you are engaged to in friendship strive to be content with 
frowns as well as smiles ; bear all their infirmities, consider- 
ing they must bear yours." 

Among all friends, to regard his wife as the dearest 
friend of his bosom — to be chaste and constant to her — and 
to seek for his chief happiness at home, is earnestly enforced 
by one who had well known what the happiness of married 
life is. ^^ Believe it," she says, " no man is happy but he 
that is so in his own house." She dwells with equal anxiety 
on his relations with his sisters, which she labours to draw as 
close as possible. " To be kind to your sisters is not only 
the earnest desire of your mother, who lodged you all in 
her womb, but what is far more, it is commanded you by 
the Spirit of God to add to your faith and virtue * brotherly 
kindness.' ' A brother,' saith Solomon, * is born for ad- 
versity.' If it be enjoined us to bear this kindness to all 
that love God, our Lord and Father, far more are you to 
bear it to your sisters, who are both lovers of God and your 
own sisters also. ' A brother loves at all times,' saith Solo- 
mon. They have you now for their father ; be kind to 
them as he was, and live as you would have yours to do 
after you are gone. God, I hope, will requite your brotherly 
care and kindness with a blessing to you in your owti. St. 
John saith, * He that loves his brother ' (I may say sisters 



92 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

too) ^ lives in light, and there is no occasion of stumbling, 
in him.' Good Abraham said to Lot, ^ Let no strife be be- 
twixt thee and me, and thy servants and mine ; we are 
brethren/ Our Saviour he told us, ' A family divided can- 
not stand,' and saith the Spirit of God, ' How pleasant is it 
to see brethren to dwell together in unity!' A threefold 
cord is not easily broken ; how pleasant, how easy is it to 
live in love, and do our duty to all ! Their virtue, I hope, 
will make you love and trust them." 

On the subject of children she speaks with a mother's 
wisdom and love. " When God blesseth you with children, 
so soon as they can speak, be letting them know of God 
as much as they are capable. Let none be about them but 
modest persons, men and women, such as fear God, and 
will be teaching and giving them good example. Breed 
them not highly, though not with want of anything in your 
power that's fit for their birth and quahty ; but let your 
greatest expences be on their education ; let them look like 
those that are bred up to be the sons and daughters of the 
Most High. If your care exceed to one by (beyond) 
another, let it be on him that by God's bounty is to be your 
heir, for your family's sake, that he may be like those have 
been of it already, a good Christian, a scholar, &c. Look 
over them yourself, and teach them their devotions and 
morals. 'Tis like I may not see them at this perfection, 
and you will be ere then far abler to do this than I 
can dictate to you, yet I let you see my good will and de- 
sire, to have you and yours happy for ever. When they 
are grown up, and go abroad to neighbours' houses, instruct 
them well how to carry modestly, humbly, and discreetly ; 
and when they come back again to you, ask them neither 
what they heard nor saw \ for that encourages young ones 
to tattle, to be censorious, scorners and detractors, and even 
sometimes to lie. If they incline to any of these, crush it in 
the bud, and be very severe for it, — a har is worse than a 
thief. See that they get not leave to do injuries to others, 



Memoir of Lady A^ina Macke^izie. 93 

that they have reverence in Divine worship, that they be not 
slothful nor idle away their time that is allotted to be busy 
in. Next to the knowledge of God and their Redeemer, 
they should know the sinfulness of their natures, — their ser- 
vants should tell them of the virtues of those that have been 
before them, that they may do nothing base or unworthy 
that looks like degenerating from them. What may be said 
more I leave to your own judgment, precept, and example, 
for which I pray to the Almighty God to bless you with 
many and good children, and with virtue and true wisdom, 
and that they may follow your example, so that you may in 
the day of the Lord say, ' Here am I, Lord ! and the child- 
ren thou hast given me.' " 

She dwells with equal emphasis on the duty of main- 
taining an orderly and religious household, shunning whis- 
perers and flatterers " that sail with all winds," — to be kind 
to his servants in their vigour and careful of them in age 
and sickness, — to love rather than hate his enemies, — to 
extend his charity, beyond the external duties of a Christian 
towards the poor and the afflicted, to the regulation of his 
opinions with regard to others, questioning his own rather 
than their judgment, learning of his Saviour to be meek, and 
remembering that " God was not in the thunder, or the fire 
but in the calm still voice,'' — to be modest in society abroad, 
— and to look on the careful management of his affairs at 
home as a duty ; these and many other incidental obliga- 
tions are enforced with aflection as earnest and in language 
as energetic as in the passages already quoted. On the 
value of silence, for example, except under the constraint of 
duty, she dwells, strongly recommending him " to speak 
little " as " that which hath many advantages. Nevertheless 
I would not have you silent when your conscience dictates 
to you to speak that which is good and right, especially if 
you come to be a public person, in Parliament or Council ; 
refrain not, if you see an occasion to do good to your King, 
your country, or your friend or neighbour, — if what you 
would say can do no good to either, though never so ex- 



94 Memoir of Lady Amia Mackenzie. 

pedient or convenient, be silent, — God does not require it, 
who has given you the use of your discretion. Solomon 
says, ' There is a time to speak and a time to be silent.' 
So long as you are young, be ready to hear, speak but little ; 
let that be pertinent and home ; observe opportunities, and 
make use of them. You will have sometimes exercises for your 
patience ; let it appear upon all occasions, as well as your 
modesty. There is always either honour or shame to those 
that speak in pubhc." Nor is her advice less practical and 
valuable on the duties incumbent upon him as a landlord and 
householder, of making himself thoroughly conversant with 
his own business : — " My next desire is, that you should know 
your estate, and your rights to it. I did what I could to order 
your charter-chest, and you will find inventories of my hand 
of all j but it cannot be in order till it be in your head ; 
therefore I desire, till it be so, that you take a little time 
every day when you have leisure for it, or once a week ; but, 
better in my opinion, an hour in the day in a very short 
time will make you go through and know all. It will make 
any lawyer or servant more careful. Trust not too many 
with your writs. When once you have known your estate 
and your burden (debt), have a rental always at your hand, 
and a note of your debt, principal and annual, regular and 
clear, in your pocket ; score off your interests first, what they 
will amount to, and pay them duly, — it is just, and will 
tend much to your credit ; and always reckon what you 
have behind, and conform your expense to that, — those that 
do otherways are in direct road to ruin. Lay your accompt 
to live on the half or third of what you have free, and it is 
like you will find accidents you think not of will fall out to 
make you come to an end of your estate before the year 
end. If your expense be at one time more nor ordinary in 
your table, hold in your clothes, or such things as are less 
necessary than your meat and drink. Let your house and 
servants, &c., look as like your quahty as may be, but not 
profuse or ostensive. Cause your steward or butler keep a 
weekly book of all that comes in that week, what spent, and 



Memoir of Lady A^ina Mackenzie, 95 

what remains. Let not any servant or other go without 
a precept " (warrant) ** to take up from tenant or any other 
for anything from you or your wife ; and let the precepts 
come in to instruct their accounts for victual, for money, 
&c., — this ^vill be easy to you or her, and for the tenants 
and servants ; be always at the accounts yourself till your lady 
perfectly understands them, — your sisters know my way." 

" You will thus," she says, in summing up her wise 
argument, "by carrying yourself aright towards God, and 
man, and your relations, make all that are related to you, 
or that wish you and your family well, and those that are 
about you, rejoice ; and their satisfaction, I am sure, will be 
a great addition to your own. The great pleasure of making 
others happy and seeing them live comfortably by your 
means will give you a peace and joy beyond any you can 
have from others, were it either to make you more honour- 
able or rich. This will make you both, leading to the land 
of uprightness, where there are durable riches. 

'' Your good grandfather, Lord David," she concludes, 
" he thought that day misspent he knew not some new 
thing. He was a very studious and diligent man in his 
affairs. You that have such a closet (library), such gardens, 
and so much to do within doors and without, need not think 
the time tedious nor be idle ; it's the hand of the diligent 
maketh rich. The good man orders his affairs with discre- 
tion ; it's the diligent that's the only person fit for govern- 
ment ; Solomon saith, his thought tends to plenteousness, 
and he may stand before kings. 

" My care hath been great for you and your family, and 
you may see by this I will be always, 
" My dear Son, 

" Your kind Mother, 

"Anna Argyll."* 

* I may obsen^e here that ** Anna" is the proper orthography of 
Lady Anna's Christian name. She so signs herself in her marriage- 
contract in 1640. While Countess of Balcarres, she wrote her name 
"Anne," as we have seen; but reverted to *'Anna" after her mar- 
riage with Arg)41. 



CHAPTER IV. 

It is not my wont to pause in the biographical path and 
comment on the events recorded ; I rather leave them to 
make their own impression on the reader. But I cannot 
at this point, and after insertion of the preceding letter, 
withhold the remarks made upon it by a woman, a friend 
of my own, to whom I read it. " It is grand," she said, 
" and how moderate ! It is more like a man's writing than 
a woman's ; she had evidently lived more with men than 
women, and the 'uses of adversity' had not been lost upon 
her. And yet she shows herself in this letter, as in all she 
has written, a thorough woman, save that there are none of 
the sentimentalities, the small-mindednesses, the weaknesses 
of the common run of women, — she is like Vittoria Colonna, 
just such a woman as would have been the friend of Michael 
Angelo. How clear and ringing her words are j how trans- 
lucent and yet how deep is the stream of her discourse ! 
And why 1 Because she has learnt to think with precision. 
Does not this show how much more important it is to do a 
few things well than many ill 1 Observe too in this letter 
how Christianity and familiarity with the Old Testament 
generate beauty in thought and style. Her quotations from 
the Bible are seldom hteral, but the Scripture had passed 
into her soul, and she reissues the coin with the legend 
occasionally varied in its reading, but essentially the same, 
and the metal unadulterated, just as the Apostles quote the 
psalms and the prophets. How fine moreover is the 
philosophy! It is like Seneca's in its simple morab dignity. 
I doubt," added my friend, " whether any woman in these 
days could write such a letter." It is on this latter point 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 97 

only that I dissent from this criticism. If the tenderness 
of womankind is a constituent element in the character of 
every noble and brave man, so is the strength and judgment 
of manhood equally inherent in the nature of the perfect 
woman — of her whom God hath created to be the " help- 
mate " of man and a '* mother in Israel." It needs only a 
somewhat sterner mental culture, a more simple existence, 
and it may be a touch of the sweet " uses of adversity " on 
a national scale, to produce women, in the present day, 
worthy of comparison with Anna of Seaforth, Balcarres, and 
Argyll. 

It was at this time, shortly after her second marriage, 
that, as I before intimated, the Countess Anna once more 
wrote to Lauderdale. It seems he had taken her marriage 
with Argyll amiss ; and other causes — probably political, 
as the rule of Presbyterian repression became severer in 
Scotland — may have contributed to aggravate his dissatis- 
faction. About four years had elapsed since their last 
communication. She addresses him in a formal manner, 
according to his rank as Lord High Commissioner, or Vice- 
Roy, at the time. Warm affection still survived, but the 
sense of injustice was strongly felt ; and nothing probably 
but anxiety for her son would have induced the remon- 
strance : — 

*'Inverary, the 7th of July, '70. 
*' May it please your Grace, 

" I had written to your Grace ere now had I not heard you 
intended so soon to be again in Scotland. Did I think what I could 
say were either acceptable or taken as I intended it, I could soon know 
what to say when now I am in some strait ; yet I shall take courage 
and venture to say it was, and is, matter of wonder to me to hear you 
are displeased with me. It has often made me sad, but the most 
malicious cannot say I resented it otherways. The Lord knows as I 
am innocent of the cause of it ; so I would look on it as no small 
happiness to have it removed ; and I am most ready to submit myself 
to your Grace as ever. I have done nothing that's dishonourable or 
unworthy of the happiness of being your kinswoman. Nor have I 
been unkind to my son's family. If I were as I much desire to be, 
that is, with your Grace as I have been, I would implore your help for 

H 



98 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

my son ; for nothing but your withdrawing can do him hurt, and your 
concerning yourself is that may, next to the blessing of God, do him 
good. Though I had nothing to consider but the friendship you was 
once pleased to allow me, it would trouble me to be as I find I am 
with your Grace ; and I m,ust confess when those I love best in the 
world are so concerned with me, it heightens it. If to love you and 
be more concerned for you than all the kindred I had upon earth be a 
fault, it's that I was guilty of to you ; yet if in anything I have done 
that which appeared to you a fault (though, upon my faith and honour, 
I am not conscious to myself I am guilty), I shall be ready to crave 
you pardon. Outward appearances I find are deceitful guides to our 
judgment or affections. I must say, they are worthy to be deceived 
that value things as they seem, especially coming from indifferent or 
biassed persons. Whoever it is that has been at the pains to change 
your heart to me, and has said bitter untruths of me, I say, I pray God 
He may not be to them as He says He would be to Job's friends for 
speaking the thing was not right of him, — ' his wrath was kindled 
against them ! ' 

' ' My Lord, had I done you the greatest wrong imaginable, as a 
Christian, I expect you would forgive it. If my entreaty cannot pre- 
vail, to be as you was to me, remember our God who is ready to for- 
give, and that if we do not forgive, we shall not be forgiven, — and I 
should think it were hard to refuse when so earnestly sought. He has 
left it, that died for us, as His express command, and as a badge of 
being His, to love one another. We must all die, and we know not 
how soon. Oh ! how happy it is for the greatest to be reconciled 
with God and their fellow- creatures ! 

" Some says your Grace is also displeased with my Lord, — who, I 
can say, deserves [it] not from you. It's hard, for his affection to so 
near a relation of your own, it should be so, he being ignorant of it. 
I shall beg of your Grace, whatever you are pleased to allow me, 
that you be to my Lord friendly. You have experience of his love, 
and [may] believe you are not capable almost to do that he will take 
ill from the Earl of Lauderdale. If you do not so, your Grace will but 
please your enemies and displease those mshes you as well as any upon 
earth does. My Lord is so faithful and excellent a person that I think 
all should covet his love and friendship. I am sure I could justify this 
by the testimony of his greatest enemies, would they be so good to them- 
selves as to speak truth ; but the sincerity of his love and respect will, 
I know, hardly allow him to say to your Grace that which may be 
looked upon as a compliment. It's most certain that person lives not 
that honours, loves, and will be more concerned for you, and indus- 
trious to serve you. 

* ' Shall I again entreat you that all mistakes may be at an end ? 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 99 

And that you would be pleased to honour my son and me with con- 
cerning yourself for him and his affairs ? Your Grace was pleased to 
call his worthy father your dearest friend ; I wish he may be his heir 
to your Grace's kindness and to all his virtues, which were not few. 

' ' I am not insensible of the indiscretion of this letter, being so long, 
when your Grace has so many and so great affairs in hand ; yet I 
must entreat your Grace to be so just to me as to think I write this, 
not as one that is so mean as to be humble to a Commissioner — I 
write it as a Christian, and in the desire to appear in all conditions of 
my life, 

" !May it please your Grace, 
" Your Grace's most affectionate and humble servant, 

*«Anna Argyll." 

I know not whether this last and touching remon- 
strance and appeal elicited any respone. I should think 
not, as no other letters from the Countess exist (as I be- 
fore mentioned) in the Lauderdale correspondence. 

Subsequently to this epistle, and, generally, after the 
Countess Anna's marriage with Argyll, we come but seldom 
into what I may call direct personal intercourse with her ; 
I have no more letters to produce from her ; it is only once 
— in vindication, as we shall see, of her long-lost daughter 
Anna's truthful fame — that her warm heart speaks out with 
the voice's utterance to our own. But we have many gHmpses 
of her, more or less distinct, through family papers and the 
histories and memoirs of the time ; and these may assist us 
in tracing the chequered history of her latter days. 

Her residence while Argyll's wife was partly at Inverary, 
the castle of the MacCallumpaores, then in the beauty of its 
picturesque antiquity, and partly, and if I mistake not more 
frequently, at Stirling, in what was then called " the Great 
Lodging or Manor-place," ^4ying upon the north side of the 
High Street," formerly belonging to Adam, Commendator of 
Cambuskenneth, but which had been acquired by the Argyle 
family in the earlier part of the seventeenth century — an 
edifice still existing and known as " Argyll's Lodging," and 
which has been of late years used as an hospital for the 
gaiTison quartered in the castle. This edifice, with its 



1 00 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

garden, and another large house and various smaller tene.- 
ments in the neighbourhood, together with " a high loft and 
laigh seat within the Kirk of Stirhng, just opposite to the 
pulpit," and an aisle or burial-place belonging to the same 
property, had been conveyed to Argyll and the Countess, 
"and the longest liver of them," in 167 1, by an arrange- 
ment with the Marchioness of Argyll, (the widow of the 
Marquis who had been executed in 1661), and who there- 
upon removed to Roseneath. In October 1674 Argyll 
settled the " Lodging " and the above appendages more for- 
mally on the Countess Anna as her jointure-house ; and on 
the ist June 1680 he made over to her the entire "plenish- 
ing," furniture, and movables contained in it, seeing that, 
" for the great love she bears us," she was content (it is stated) 
to accept the same in lieu of the more ample provision in that 
character she would have been entitled to in the event of her 
surviving him. An inventory, signed by both, was made 
up on the occasion ; and a brief analysis of it may afford 
an interesting view of the domestic establishment of a great 
Scottish family in their town-house at that time. 

The principal apartments consisted of the " Laigh Hall," 
— the " High Hall," or " High Dining-room," provided with 
twelve folding tables and thirty chairs ; the "Drawing-room," 
or " Laigh Drawing-room," furnished with two "very great 
looking-glasses " and a " chair of state, with purple curtains," 
or canopy ; " my Lord and Lady's chamber;" " my Lady's 
closet " — what we should now call her boudoir, or sitting- 
room ; the apartments of Lady Jean Campbell, Argyll's 
daughter, of Lady Sophia Lindsay (her sister Henrietta 
being then married), and of Lord Lorn, Argyll's eldest son, 
forming three suites, consisting each of an outer chamber or 
lobby, a central room, and an inner or smaller closet. Lady 
Jean's opening on the garden ; the " Grey-room," with its 
closet ; the "Wardrobe," apparently a very important room, 
furnished with massive fir chests containing stores of cloth, 
hangings, etc. etc., for the most part not made up, with 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, i o i 

the *^ Tailzior's," or " Tailor's-room " adjacent, where the 
materials were shaped and put together as needed, — while, 
among offices, we have the " Master of the Household's 
room," the " Glass-room," devoted to crockery, trenchers, 
etc. etc. ; the '^ Great Kitchen," provided with two grates, 
and the " Little Kitchen," with a small one, and all the 
necessary materials for cookery; the '^ Pantry-;" the "Ale- 
cellar ; " the " Laigh Dining-room," or Servants' hall ; and 
the " Woman-house," apparently a separate wing or building, 
of two storeys, provided with " stent-trees " or horses for 
linen, '^ owl " or " wool-wheels," for spinning wool, *' lint- 
wheels " for flax, and "' gairne-roun dills," or boards for 
making oat-cakes — besides the bake-house and the brew- 
house, the invariable appendages of old Scottish mansions. 
Among the "plenishing," or furniture for the rooms, every 
early stage of invention was represented, from the rude 
form and humble joint-stool, the first creations of civilisa- 
tion, to the " black wooden chair," with its seat super- 
induced of richly-wrought tapestry and " needle-work 
sublime," fraught to our recollection with 

" the peony spread wide, 
The full-blo-wn rose, the shepherd and his lass. 
Lap-dog and lambkin with black staring eyes, 
And parrots with twin cherries in their beak." 

^' Wand," or wicker chairs exhibited a step in progress which 
has escaped Cowper, but " cane chairs," the mark of ^^ a 
generation more refined," were numerous ; and there was 
even abundance of rich Russia-leather chairs, without and 
with arms, the latter doubtless sufficiently ^' restless " and 
uncomfortable, although " our rugged sires " never com- 
plained, howsoever 

' ' inconveniently pent in, 
And ill at ease behind." 

Beyond this, however, the luxury of " Argyll's Lodging," in 
the way of seats, did not soar, — " the soft settee " and "' the 
sofa," although already accomplished in France, had not 



102 Memoir of L ady A 7ina Mackenzie. 

apparently reached Stirling, for no articles of this descrip- 
tion figure in the inventory. The tables were usually of fir, 
and except in the Countess' own bed-room and her "closet," 
there were no chests of drawers, their place being suppHed 
by shelves fastened to the walls. Amid these homeHer 
articles of use " sweet-wood " (or cedar ?) " boxes," " in- 
dented " (or inlaid) " cabinets " (one of them " with a clock, 
with an indented case " attached to it), " varnished " dress- 
ing-tables with glasses, and large looking-glasses — many of 
these being provided with pairs " of standarts " (castors ?) 
" conform " — were scattered through the house, evidently of 
costly materials and superior taste and workmanship. The 
principal rooms were carpeted, and all, of every descrip- 
tion, hung with tapestry — of Arras, or of '^stamped drugget," 
or stuff, sometimes edged with gilded leather, in the better, 
and of common stuffs (plaiding, serge, etc.), in the inferior 
rooms. There were candlesticks for hanging on the walls, 
brass candlesticks for the tables, and two small hand- 
candlesticks for the especial use (probably) of the Earl and 
Countess. Screens, lined with cloth to match with the hang- 
ings, gave protection from the wind j " carpet covers " 
contributed to the comfort of the cane chairs \ and cover- 
ings of the same material ornamented the tables. All the 
rooms were provided with fire-places, two or three of them 
even with " purring-irons," or pokers, beside the more usual 
provision of shovel and tongs. There was ample provision 
in the way of bedding — feather-beds and "cods," or pillows, 
" palliasses," or straw mattresses — " braidit " (embroidered ?) 
blankets, and generally one " English blanket " to each 
principal bed — the counterpanes of the superior bed-rooms 
being frequently ornamented with strips of gilded leather. 
A very magnificent bed of embroidered purple velvet, with 
its appurtenances, and eight chairs to match, as well as 
numerous " dornick " (or figured) and damask tablecloths 
and napkins, chair-covers of flowered velvet, green and 
white, Holland sheets, and such-hke domestic treasures, to 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 103 

be produced, it is to be supposed, on state occasions, as, 
for exahiple, when the Duke of York was the Countess 
Anna's guest in 1680, were preserved, along with stores of 
homeHer materials (as above stated), in the " Wardrobe." 

But the most interesting portion of this old inventory, 
as regards the Countess, is the section of it which describes 
her own pecuHar '^ closet " or sitting-room. She had as- 
sembled in it and around her all her pretty things, simple 
enough in themselves, but in which she had indulged her 
natural taste for the graceful and beautiful — forming a 
second supply or replacement (as it were) of that '* womanly 
furniture " which Lord Balcarres speaks of as a thing of the 
past in the testamentary disposition mentioned in a former 
page. Among the items enumerated are no less than three 
" sweet-wood boxes," and an escritoire^ or writing-table, of 
"varnished" wood — two little statues of "marable," — "two 
little green and white statues " (probably of some species 
of earthenware) — a mortar and pestle of marble — " two 
crystal bottles, with two crystal candlesticks, with ane 
crystal fall, and ane crystal glass for essences " — " three 
crystal bottles, whereof two has silver heads " — and " two- 
and-twenty counterfeit porcelain dishes " (Dutch imitation, 
I presume, of China ware), in w^hich we may recognise the 
set of twenty-three which her friend Madame Henderson 
had sent her from Holland in 1664 — one of them having 
evidently been broken since that year. Two pair of 
" raised " (or embossed) " silver candlesticks," a silver ink- 
horn, and " a bell of bell-metal " for summoning her attend- 
ants (suspension -bells being of subsequent, indeed recent 
introduction), are enumerated, as also her taper-holder for 
sealing letters — for such, I think, must have been the 
article described as " ane candlestick, with ane roll of wax 
candle," — the roll or coil of taper resting below on a plate- 
like bason, twining round a slender upright silver stem, and 
rising at the top through a holder or beak projecting at 
right angles to the stem, the beak holding it tight, but 



104 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

opening by the pressure of the fingers, hke a pair of scissors, 
so as to allow of the coil being drawn out from time to 
time as rendered necessary by its consumption. These last- 
named articles, the taper, the ink-horn, the hand-bell, and 
the two raised silver candlesticks, have evidently stood upon 
the escritoire^ or writing-table, above mentioned, in the most 
comfortable corner of the room. Another interesting item, 
" a case of wooden tae-cups '' — tea-cups ! (modelled seem- 
ingly after the fashion of quaichs) — probably stood on a 
side-table, together with her little stock of plate, consisting 
of six large and six smaller silver "tumblers," a silver 
tumbler gilded, and a gilded spoon, knife, and fork, with 
two gilded " salts," or salt-cellars ; while on a large fir-table, 
in the centre of the room, provided as usual with '^ standarts," 
and covered with a table-cover, reposed (I have little doubt) 
her '' Cambridge Bible, in two large volumes in folio, with 
Ogleby's cuts," an edition published in 1660, of remarkable 
magnificence, and beside it (a singular companion, but 
characteristic of the owner), the " Acts of ParHament." On 
the walls, and doubtless in honourable places, hung " my 
Lord's picture, in a little gilded frame," and " Mr. Baxter's 
picture," while " fifteen painted fancies " further decorated 
the apartment. The hangings were of stamped purple, and 
the tablecloth to match. Such was the Countess Anna's 
"- sanctum;" such were her " Lares et Penates," her house- 
hold gods, some of them probably dear to her from old 
Balcarres associations, in her new home. 

I may add that of five other pictures which hung in the 
Dining-room, viz. a portrait of Argyll in his robes (by Lely), 
her own portrait, that of her father Earl Colin of Seaforth 
(by Riley), and portraits of her two daughters, the first and 
third are now preserved among our family pictures. The 
only musical instrument in the house was " a fine harp," 
" upon standarts," which stood in the Drawing-room ; but 
whether its strings rendered eloquent response to the 
Countess Anna's touch I cannot determine. 



Memoir of Lady Anna Macke7izie, 105 

I do not like to turn from this glimpse of peace and 
repose to public matters, rife as they were with disquiet and 
turmoil during the latter half of the seventeenth century. 
The fortunes of Anna Countess of Argyll were still, as 
those of Anna of Balcarres had been during the early days 
of the Covenant, bound up with the interests of the Scottish 
Kirk and the cause, as it ultimately became once more, ot 
constitutional liberty. A few words on the course of ecclesi- 
astical matters in Scotland during the twenty-eight years 
which elapsed between 1660 and 1688 must therefore intro- 
duce what I have yet to say. 

Charles II. returned to Britain a Hmited, not an ab- 
solute monarch, — the Restoration was the triumph of Con- 
stitutionalism. I have alluded to the joy of the country at 
the King's return, but the expression but feebly expresses 
the enthusiasm, the frenzied excitement, with which that 
return was greeted in Scotland. Kirkton, the (Presbyterian) 
church historian and a contemporary, describes it in vivid 
terms. The Scots, as a nation, were thoroughly sickened 
of the tyranny of Cromwell and the Commonwealth ; their 
hopes had become centred year after year more and more 
earnestly on their exiled king, knowing him to be courteous 
and kind, believing him to be not disinclined to Presby- 
terianism, and viewing him as the symbol and represen- 
tative of freedom and civil security. A tender sentiment 
further attached to him through " the compassions the world 
had for his father's misfortunes and sufferings," and " his 
own youth being spent in continual toil, attended with loss, 
dishonour, and grief," "which were enough," says the above 
authority, " to make a gentle nature to pity him." " Their 
affections to his person were " thus " equal to their discon- 
tent with the repubhcan government." And " in fine, the 
eagerness of their longing was so great, [that] some would 
never cut their hair, some would never drink wine, some 
would never wear linen, till they might see the desire of 
their eyes, the King." In the midst of these aspirations, 



I o 6 Memoir of L ady A una Mackenzie, 

however, the more zealous Scottish Presbyterians, the 
trustees (as they esteemed themselves) of the Solemn 
League and Covenant, were not without grave misgivings 
as to the future. When Monk commenced his memorable 
march for London, they sent with him Mr. James Sharpe, 
one of their ablest ministers, to watch over the interests of 
the Kirk in any revolution which might ensue. The two 
laymen on whom they most relied for protection were 
Lauderdale and Crawford-Lindsay, still at that time state 
prisoners, but who were released by the authority of Monk, 
and appointed (as I have stated), Lauderdale Secretary of 
State, and Crawford-Lindsay (as before) High Treasurer, 
after the Restoration. Of these three men Crawford-Lindsay 
was true to the Covenant, Lauderdale and Sharpe were not. 
It soon appeared that Presbyterianism had but few friends at 
court. The King's experience of it during his residence in 
Scotland had made him bitterly dislike it ; his Enghsh 
councillors looked upon the Covenant as the source of all 
the sufferings of the last twenty years ; Lauderdale, knowing 
his countrymen well, and viewing the question as one of 
policy rather than principle, strongly dissuaded the King 
from pressing Episcopacy upon them ; but the advice of 
more ardent spirits, and especially of the High Church 
party in England, prevailed ; Middleton was sent to Edin- 
burgh as High Commissioner with full authority to restore 
the Episcopal polity ; and Sharpe returned to Scotland 
Archbishop of St. Andrews. 

The clergy throughout Scotland were now required to 
accept presentation from lay patrons and induction from 
the prelates, both these requisitions being diametrically 
opposed to the cherished principles of the Kirk. Between 
three and four hundred ministers at once resigned their 
livings, and the church, to use the language of the times, 
fled into the wilderness. 

Crawford-Lindsay, the champion and sole hope of the 
Presbyterians, maintained a long and gallant struggle on behalf 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 107 

of the Kirk and the Covenant, but was at last, in the summer 
of 1663, forced, as an honest man, to resign the Treasurer- 
ship and to retire from poHtical life — although against the 
advice of Lauderdale and Sir Robert Moray, who saw matters 
differently. The King — always partial personally to the 
Scottish friends and adherents of his earlier and suffering 
years — was loath to accept his resignation, and at Craw- 
ford's request, prompted by Lauderdale and Moray, 
appointed his son-in-law the Earl (afterwards Duke) of 
Rothes Treasurer in his stead. 

It is by no means easy to form a judgment of the 
motives and actions of those who took the leading part in 
these transactions. At first sight it would appear as if the 
measures just detailed were a mere wanton aggression upon 
the liberties, civil and ecclesiastical, of Scotland j but a dis- 
passionate inquiry will prove that such was not the case. 
The real fact was, that while the more enthusiastic Presby- 
terians cherished the Covenant as a living law of truth and 
life, their more moderate brethren whether among the 
ministry or the laity treated or at least thought of it as '* an 
old almanack," which had done good service in its day, but 
was now out of date. The latter were, with the exception 
of Crawford-Lindsay, the men brought into power by the 
Restoration. Their conviction and that of Charles and his 
Scottish council in 1661 was much what that of James VI. 
and his advisers had been in 1597, namely, that the extreme 
pretensions of the Presbyterian church were irreconcilable 
Avith the legitimate rights of personal and civil liberty. No 
government could, in fact, be carried on, no individual 
freedom could subsist, under the tyranny of a theocracy 
such as that of 1650. The revelations of the last few 
years had further proved that not only had theological learn- 
ing, till lately the ornament of the Scottish Episcopal Kirk, 
ceased from the land, but that license in thought and 
depravity in morals, whether rampant before the sun or 
veiled over by hypocrisy, had been developed in Scotland 



io8 Memoir of Lady Anna Macke^izie. 

no less than in England in exact proportion to the severity 
of church discipline, and this to an extent undreamt of in 
more moderate times, — a depravity destined to expand into 
that wide-spread profligacy which disgraced Britain during 
the latter years of the seventeenth century, and which, so 
far from being attributable (as commonly supposed) to the 
limited influence of Charles II.'s court at Paris or in London, 
was in a proximate degree the positive and immediate con- 
sequence of that merciless, iron-flke, spiritual despotism, 
whether of the Kirk in Scotland or of the Puritan regime in 
England, which had been felt to be intolerable even at the 
time except by those whose blameless and holy lives ex- 
empted them from suffering from its severity. On every 
ground, therefore — on that of the necessary rights of the 
civil magistrate, on that of individual freedom, in the 
interests of learning and of public morality — and at a time 
too when the whole head was faint and the whole heart sick 
with the throes of mortal agony through which Britain had 
struggled to the Restoration — men might have been ac- 
counted wise who thought that a return to the constitution 
of the Kirk as settled in 1597 and subsequently would be 
advantageous to all parties and not upon the whole dis- 
tasteful to those who were to be reheved by it, the laity 
and the moderate section of the clergy of Scotland. The 
joy of the nation at the recovery of their freedom after the 
tyranny of Cromwell and the Independents may even have 
induced a belief in such statesmen that the restoration of 
church polity as it had stood during the period previous to 
the imposition of the obnoxious Service-Book in 1637, 
would be accepted without difficulty. They were deceived in 
this expectation, but it is diflicult to say that, in the general 
reaction of sentiment, they were not warranted in entertain- 
ing it. They would unquestionably have been justified in pro- 
viding for such securities to the government and to the liberties 
of the subject against the despotism of the Kirk as the ex- 
perience of the past proved to be needful. But they were 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 109 

not justified in imposing Episcopacy, with the attendant 
tests and requisitions insisted upon in connection with it, 
upon a rekictant Kirk and people, and still less in pro- 
secuting this object and crushing down opposition by the 
series of measures adopted for the purpose, although in no 
respect more peremptory or severe in their character and 
tendency than those previously inflicted by the Kirk on 
Episcopahans, Papists, Independents, Quakers, and in a 
word, all who differed from them. The result was, what 
might have been expected, an aggravation of those ever- 
jealous susceptibihties of national independence which had 
lain quite as much as religious principle at the root of the 
resistance to Charles L, and which, after twenty-eight years 
of either active or passive resistance, were to determine the 
ultimate establishment of Presbyterianism in exclusive de- 
Catholicised independence as the Church of Scotland after 
the Revolution of 1688. This of course was not dreamt of 
in i66t. a deep conviction lay then at the root of all 
men's minds that the Kirk had, as a theocratic power, 
been tried and found w^anting ; and so much of this re- 
membrance survived in 1688 that, in the final settlement 
which took place after the Revolution, the Kirk was 
practically bridled with one hand while established with the 
other — a consummation of Erastianism very different from 
that contemplated by the Melvilles and Bruces of 1596, 
the Protesters of 165 1, and the Cameronians of Bothwell 
Brig. The Secession Church of last century and the Free 
Church of the present, are thus the only legitimate repre- 
sentatives now of the spirit of the Covenant. My own 
belief, speaking from an external point of view, is clear, 
that the limited Episcopacy of 15 97-1 6 10, which secured 
to the Kirk of 1560 the Apostolical succession and the 
privileges of Catholicity, and preserved it from excess and 
self-rupture though securing its due relative position to the 
civil power, might, with any needful modifications, have 



I lo Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

been retained with advantage. But . . . . " Dis aliter 
visum est ! " 

It will hardly be wondered at that considerations like 
these had Httle influence on the heirs and representatives 
— the trustees, as I have called them, for so they esteemed 
themselves — of the Solemn League and Covenant in Scot- 
land in the years following upon the Restoration. The 
compulsory resignation of the ministers, the enforced re- 
tirement of Crawford-Lindsay, and the promotion of men 
who, like Sharpe, had apostatised, as it was held, from the 
faith and betrayed their duty, contributed to exasperate the 
passions and inflame the religious enthusiasm of the more 
zealous Presbyterians. From this time forward conventicles 
were held in the glens and caverns of the wilder regions of 
Scotland ; the dispossessed ministers led the worship ; sen- 
tries were posted to give warning in case the military bands, 
whose duty it was to disperse such assemblages, should 
appear; and women of all classes, and not unfrequently 
those belonging to what were called the " court families," 
attended these meetings, and drank in the impassioned 
exhortations of their persecuted pastors, while beside them 
were piled the weapons which their stronger companions 
were ready to wield, if necessary, against any w^ho should 
interrupt them. 

Among these ladies the most prominent and influential 
was one to whom the Presbyterians looked up with extra- 
ordinary deference and veneration. Lady Anne Lindsay, 
Duchess of Rothes, Crawford-Lindsay's daughter. Lauder- 
dale, who, persecuting out of pohcy, never, I beheve, forgot 
that he had once been a Covenanter, and Sir Robert Moray, 
had known their man when they recommended Rothes as 
Crawford-Lindsay's successor. Even Wodrow mentions 
instances of his lenity. It is still remembered that the 
Duchess frequently concealed the nonconformist preachers 
in the neighbourhood of her husband's castle of Leshe. A 
quiet understanding subsisted between husband and wife 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 1 1 

on the subject. When under the necessity of acting with 
vigour against the recusant preachers, the Duke's usual 
warning was, "My hawks will be, out to-night, my Lady, — 
take care of your blackbirds !" And the tradition is that 
she warned the " blackbirds " of the coming storm by a white 
sheet suspended from a tree on the hill above the house of 
Leslie, w^iich could be seen for a considerable distance. 
But none sympathised more warmly with the oppressed 
fugitives than Earl Colin's two sisters. Lady Sophia and 
Lady Henrietta Lindsay. Widely different in character, the 
one being as gentle and retiring as the other was energetic 
and enterprising, they were united in one faith, one love, 
to their Saviour, their widowed mother, and each other. 
In her diary, still preserved, Henrietta, the younger, ascribes 
to the cheerful piety of her mother's servants, as well as to 
that mother's early instruction, the love of religion which 
sprang up in her heart in childhood, and, at sixteen years 
of age, induced her solemnly to dedicate herself, after her 
best endeavour, to the service of her Redeemer. For many 
weeks afterwards, she says, it was one of her chief enjoy- 
ments to sing the forty-fifth psalm while walking in the 
retired plantations at Balcarres. Solitude and seclusion — 
in which she could commune with her own heart and be 
still — had ever a peculiar charm for her. But in course of 
time the oppressions of the hour worked upon her spirit 
till a tinge of enthusiasm disturbed her natural common sense, 
and, as in many other cases in that day, she became the sub- 
ject of visions and dreams which, although she never herself 
notices them, those who were made acquainted with them 
understood as the results of direct supernatural intervention. 
Of this nature was a dream which I shall hereafter mention 
concerning the Revolution of 1688, and an apparition to 
her of the Great Enemy recorded, on the report of a 
Mr. John Anderson, by Wodrow, to the effect that for a 
long time she " was under a severe temptation of slavish 
fear of Satan's appearing in a bodily shape, which turned 



1 1 2 Memoir of Lady Anna Macke^tzie, 

so violent as to fright her much from secret duty, yet still 
she continued at it, till one day, when at secret prayer, 
Satan did appear (if I mind) under the shape of a black 
lyon roaring; but then there appeared likewise a chain 
about him, which perfectly commanded him. This vision," 
he adds, " perfectly cured " her " of slavish fear." Her 
enthusiasm, I must add, never betrayed her into fanaticism, 
or, at least, the malignity which usually accompanies that 
phase of spiritual error; not a word of bitterness against 
others has escaped her throughout the diary above mentioned. 
Her sister, on the contrary. Lady Sophia, was a creature of 
daylight and brightness as much as Lady Henrietta was of 
twilight and reserve. She is spoken of as a woman remark- 
able for the brightest faculties, cheerful and witty, irre- 
pressible in energy, and endowed with that presence of 
mind in the hour of need which is worth more even than 
courage in moments of emergency. I shall have occasion to 
illustrate this hereafter, — an instance of her playful vivacity, 
in her earlier years, is recorded by a son of Mr. Blackader, 
who had been shut up in Stirling Castle for refusing to sign 
the Black Bond, one of the numerous tests by which the 
consciences of the Presbyterians were probed about 1674 : — 
" While I was in prison," he says, " the Earl of Argyll's 
daughters-in-law, Lady Sophia and Lady Henrietta, and 
Lady Jean, his own daughter, did me the honour and came 
to see me, where I remember Lady Sophia stood up on a 
bench and arraigned before her the Provost of Stirling, then 
sentenced and condemned him to be hanged for keeping 
me in prison ; which highly enraged the poor fool provost, 
though it was but a harmless frohc. It seems he complained 
to the Council of it, for which the good Earl was like to 
have been brought to much trouble about it." It was this 
same Blackader, I think, who led the devotions at a great 
preaching on the Craig of Balcarres, then, as I have men- 
tioned, bare of trees, and capable of accommodating thou- 
sands upon thousands of hearers ranged, in concentric 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 1 3 

circles, round the minister preaching, Hke John the Baptist, 
from the'summit of the rock to his weeping audience. 

I do not find the Countess Anna's own name mentioned 
in connection with any meetings of this impassioned kind, 
nor does her name once figure in the "Analecta" or 
miscellaneous jottings of Wodrow — that repertory of the 
religious gossip of the zealots of the time. It would have 
been strange indeed had it been so. Warmly attached to 
the Presbyterian church, her mind was of too masculine, 
too sober, I might almost say too Catholic a cast, and she 
had had too much experience of hfe in the historical de- 
velopments of her time, to rush into fanaticism, or even, so 
far as I can perceive, to slide into the milder error of 
enthusiasm, which certainly captivated the more youthful 
imagination of Lady Henrietta, at least, of her two 
daughters. AVe should scarcely otherwise have seen her on 
terms of cordiality, if not of friendship — at all events in 
intercourse — with Bishop Gunnings a man noted for his 
boldness in continuing to read the liturgy at his chapel in 
Exeter House, London, when the Parliament was most 
predominant and throughout the usurpation, and this in 
opposition to Cromwell's frequent rebuke — and with Arch- 
bishop Sharpe of St. Andrews, at a time when prelacy was 
abhorred by presbyterians, and the name of Sharpe was a 
byrvord among his former brethren. Her sympathy was 
rather, like the Apostle's, with all who loved the Lord Jesus 
with sincerity. If Baxter was her personal friend in one 
direction, Dr. Earles, the excellent Dean of Westminster 
and Bishop of Salisbury — whose ^^ innocent wisdom," ^' sanc- 
tified learning," and "pious peaceable temper," are the 
theme of Isaac Walton's eulogy — was, as we have seen, 
her "old kind friend" on the other; and if the " Divine 
Life" and "Saints' Rest" were dear to her alike from their 
subject and their author, the writings of Robert Boyle and 
Isaac Barrow were equally objects of her admiring famili- 
arity. Nothing indeed is more remarkable than the mutual 



1 14 Me^noir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

understanding and cordiality, and even the affection, which 
we constantly find to have subsisted in those days between 
individuals belonging to parties in church and state which 
we are accustomed in the retrospect to consider as at deadly 
enmity. As partisans, doubtless, they would have fought 
a Voutrance when arrayed in the opposing ranks of polemical 
or political controversy ; but in their individual relations in 
the intercourse of life they seem to have thought more of 
the points of agreement than those of difference, and found 
those points a sufficient basis for a common and kindly 
understanding. It would be well for ourselves in the 
present day did we cultivate the like charity — ^which is as 
different from a cold indififerentism as the glow of the 
summer day in Italy from the wintry torpor of Nova Zembla. 
I have spoken of course, in the preceding observations, of 
the more enlightened and liberal of their time, those whose 
hearts had been rendered cosmopolitan — "large as the 
sands upon the sea-shore," like Solomon's — by that extended 
knowledge of the world which promotes charity and induces 
sympathy, the one the silver zone, the other the golden 
crown of Christianity. 

It will not create surprise that Earl Colin's sisters, domes- 
ticated as they now were with Argyll, should both of them 
have espoused Campbells. Sophia married, but not till about 
1689, Charles Campbell, a younger son of her stepfather, 
and Henrietta became the wife of Sir Duncan Campbell of 
Auchinbreck, chieftain of an ancient branch of the " Sons 
of Diarmid." This latter match took place, I believe, in 
1678, and about a year afterwards Lady Henrietta and Sir 
Duncan paid a visit to Inverary, where their '^little Jamie" 
was nursed, as Lady Henrietta says in her diary, by " his 
grandmother," the Countess Anna, " with the greatest affec- 
tion and tenderness," — a visit she always looked back upon 
with tender remembrance of "the mutual affection, sym- 
pathy, and concord that was among us at this time." Once 
only afterwards did they assemble together in this manner, 



Memoir oj Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 1 5 

and that ,was in 1680, shortly before events which I shall 
have to mention presently ; when, as Lady Henrietta states, 
" most of the late Earl's family and my mother's, being a 
numerous company, had a cheerful meeting at Cantyre, 
the sacrament being administered there two days following 
together. And indeed, as this meal was doubled to many^ 
so there wanted not a long journey to many to go in the 
strength of it," it being the last they partook of for many 
weary days, — " the growing desolation and trouble daily 
increasing, to the putting a further restraint on ministers 
and people, many of whom were imprisoned, harassed, 
chased to the hazard of their lives, violating the consciences 
of others, and to the fearful bloodshed of many j retrench- 
ing our liberties, so that it was made a crime to meet or 
convene to the worship of the living God except in such a 
manner as our nation was solemnly sworn against, — laying 
bonds on ministers not to preach, or people to hear, under 
such and such penalties, fines, hazards, as were endless to 
rehearse; things running to such a height to the intro- 
ducing of popery itself, if the Lord had not prevented, that 
no thinking persons but mostly were under the dread and 
fear of this approaching judgment." 

During these many years of Presbyterian depression 
Argyll had maintained the quiet tenor of his path, incon- 
spicuous in action, and untroubled by those in power. A 
royalist on the Highland hills in 1653, he had been from 
the first, like Balcarres and Crawford-Lindsay, the firiend of 
constitutional, not of despotic monarchy. After the Res- 
toration, foreseeing the course of events, he " disengaged 
himself" (to use the words of a biographer) '' as much as 
possible from all pubhc affairs except those which related 
to his religious profession," — to that, indeed, ^' through the 
whole of his life, he devoted himself with a consistency and 
earnestness so pure, as almost totally to reject the usual 
alloy of political party-spirit ; and thus his affection to 
monarchy and the regularity of his allegiance remained 



1 1 6 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

undisturbed." This state of things was finally interrupted 
by the imposition of a new test, or oath, which the Scottish 
nobility were required to take after the murder of Arch- 
bishop Sharpe in 1679 ^^^ the subsequent insurrection in 
the west country, — an oath by which the juror professed his 
acquiescence in the confession of faith agreed to in the year 
1560, and at the same time acknowledged the King as 
supreme head of the Church, an admission incompatible 
with the former. When this test was tendered to Argyll 
as a member of the Privy Council, he declared that he took 
it " in so far as it was consistent with itself and with the 
Protestant religion," — a qualification for which he was cast 
into prison, tried, found guilty of treason and lese-majesty, 
and sentenced to death and forfeiture. 

He was lying in Edinburgh Castle in daily expectation 
of the order arriving for his execution when woman's wit 
intervened for his safety. It was not however his wife, but 
his favourite step-daughter, the sprightly Lady Sophia, who 
accomplished his escape. Her mother^ it is true, had had 
ample experience of disguise and stratagem in the old days 
of the rebellion, and her counsel doubtless guided and 
seconded Lady Sophia's bold and successful enterprise. 
Having obtained leave to visit him for ane half-hour, she 
brought with her a tall, awkward, country clown as a page, 
with a fair wig, and his head tied up as if he had been 
engaged in a fray. On entering she made them change 
clothes, and at the expiration of the allotted half-hour she 
bade farewell in a flood of tears to her supposed step-father, 
and walked out of the prison with the most perfect dignity 
and with a slow pace, escorted from the door of the cell by 
a gentleman of the castle. The sentinel at the drawbridge, 
a sly Highlander, eyed Argyll hard, but her presence of mind 
did not desert her; she twitched her train of embroidery, 
carried in those days by the page, out of his hand, and dropping 
it in the mud, exclaimed, dashing it across his face, " Varlet ! 
take that for knowing no better how to carry your lady's gar- 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 1 7 

ment." This ill-treatment so confounded the sentinel that 
he let them pass unquestioned. They had still to pass the 
main guard, but were not stopped ; and then, after the 
great gate was opened and the lower guard drawn out 
double, to make a lane for Lady Sophia and her attendants 
to pass, one of the guard who opened the gate took Argyll 
by the arm " rudely enough, and viewed him," but he again 
escaped discovery. At the outer gate Lady Sophia stepped 
into her coach which was waiting for her, handed in still 
by the gentleman from the castle. Argyll stepped up be- 
hind in his character of lackey, but on reaching the weigh- 
house, or custom-house, sHpped quietly off, dived into one 
of the wynds or narrow streets contiguous to it, and 
^'shifted for himself." This cleverly executed rescue was 
effected about nine o'clock in the evening of the 20th 
December 1681. 

Argyll was conducted by a clergyman of the name of 
Veitch through unfrequented roads to London, where he 
lay concealed for some time till means were found for 
his escape to Holland, in which country he resided the 
remainder of Charles II.'s reign. Charles was aware 
of Argyll being in London, but he was not ungenerous, 
and moreover, as Fountainhall observes, " ever retained 
some kindness for him ;" and when a note was put into his 
hand signifying where he was to be found, he tore it up^ 
exclaiming, " Pooh, pooh ! hunt a hunted partridge % Fye, 
for shame !" Argyll beguiled some of the weary hours of 
his concealment by writing an epistle in rhyme to his fair 
preserver, beginning 

*' Daughter, as dear as dearest child can be, 
Lady Sophia, ever dear to me ! " 

and ending, after a dreary rhapsody of church and state 
politics in a more familiar and pleasant strain : — 

" The noble friends I found here greet you well ; 
How much they honour you it's hard to tell ; 



1 1 8 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

Or how well I am us'd ; to say it all 

Might make you think that I were in Whitehall ! 

I eat, I drink, I lie, I lodge so well, 

It were a folly to attempt to tell ; 

So kindly car'd for, furnished, attended. 

Were ye to chalk it down, you could not mend it. 

I want for nothing, ye can't wish me better 

For folk and friends. I have now fill'd my paper, 

To tell the rest would need another letter. 

I thank God I'm in health ; I wish that you 

Be well and merry ; and, my dear, Adieu ! " 

Lady Sophia, it seems, narrowly escaped a public whipping 
through the streets of Edinburgh \ but the Duke of York, 
afterwards James II., with his wonted humanity, interposed 
to protect her, saying " that they were not wont to deal so 
cruelly with ladies in his country." It was an argument 
perhaps somewhat beyond the mark, for the lenity exhibited 
towards Lady Sophia is dwelt upon by Fountainhall, four 
years afterwards, when noting the fact of " one Mistress 
Gaunt " being " condemned to death and burnt at Tyburn, 
for assisting one of the Western rebels with Monmouth to 
escape, and giving him money," — " this," he observes, " was 
Lady Sophia Lindsay's guilt in conveying away Argyll, yet 
all her punishment with us " {i.e, the Scots) " was only some 
time's imprisonment." Such were the times, heroism and 
ferocity alternately predominant — vices and virtues in strong 
salient opposition. The sharply-defined devices and in- 
scriptions of the gold and silver coinage of the reigns 
preceding the Revolution might be cited to typify these 
characteristics, just as the smooth and featureless surface of 
King William's and Queen Mary's shillings might be under- 
stood to foreshadow the dull flat of moral uniformity to 
which society has been tending ever since the commence- 
ment of the last century. 

This prosecution, or rather persecution of Argyll, and 
the fate he was sentenced to, were viewed with mingled 
feelings in Scotland, but those of pity and indignation pre- 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 1 9 

dominated. His dealings with the creditors (partly his own 
and partly his father's) on the Argyll estates had been con- 
sidered harsh and unjust ; and his policy in the Highlands 
and Hebrides, especially against the Macleans — prosecuting 
the objects of aggrandisement and superiority, traditional in 
his family, by the help alike of legal machinery and of letters 
of fire and sword under the authority of the State — had 
occasioned a confederation of Highland chiefs, including 
Seaforth, Athol, Glengarry, Macleod, and others, for the 
purpose of ^^ bearing him down," primarily in self-defence, 
remotely in the hope of profiting by his fall. It is difiicult 
to reconcile the character thus exhibited of him with that 
of religious sincerity and personal amiability which un- 
doubtedly attached to him ; but such (I repeat) were the 
contrarieties of the time — or rather, such are the incon- 
sistencies of human nature ; they exist still, but in 
diminished prominence, and hence attract less attention. 
It is admitted that he had " walked legally and warily 
enough in all he had done," — but that would only aggravate 
the offence of an Argyll in the eyes of his contemporaries. 
From the above causes. Earl Archibald had been very 
unpopular up to the time of his forfeiture ; nor had he 
escaped obloquy through his being a member of the Privy 
Council, which was held in such odium by the recusant 
Presbyterians. The fact, however, that he sufi'ered at last 
for the Protestant interest — for, as a contemporary expresses 
it, ^^ a slender paper used as a salvo for his conscience " in 
accepting a test which every one abhorred — sufiiced to 
make him at once the object of warm sympathy, and his 
escape the subject of general satisfaction. And, added to 
this, a sentiment, honourable to human nature and always 
strongly felt in feudal times, further contributed to engage 
public feeling on his side — pity and pain at seeing a great 
noble crushed (for every one knew that this was an element 
in Argyll's case) through the jealousy and dread entertained 
by the Crown of his power and greatness. Like the more 



1 2 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

ancient Scottish Earls and Barons — of March, of Marr, .of 
Strathearn, of Douglas, of Angus, of Crawford, and others 
— the Earls of Argyll were invested, in their baronial capa- 
city, with rights of Regality, which conferred the exclusive 
power of administering law and justice to their vassals (except 
in cases of high treason), in their own courts, without appeal 
to those of the realm, rendering them thus in reality 
sovereign princes holding of a suzerain, like the Earls Palatine 
of Chester in England, and the Margraves and Pfalzgraves of 
the Continent. The office of High Justiciary, or Justice- 
General of Scotland, was also hereditary in the Argyll 
family, and although their justiciary power had been re- 
stricted to Argyllshire by recent enactments, they were 
still, as such, supreme within that extensive territory. And 
further, as chiefs of the race of Diarmid, or Clan Campbell, 
MacCallummore* ruled over the hearts and wills of his people 
with a patriarchal sway, which, while analogous in kind to 
that exercised by the Lochiels and Glengarrys of the north, 
was strengthened in the case of the Earls of Argyll by 
something very like a superstitious faith in the luck or 
fortune that usually attended the peculiar and subtle genius 
of the family — ever wise, wary, and politic — differing in 
this respect, as they possibly did in race, from all the other 
Highland tribes. The house of Argyll was thus, in fact, 
from the combination of these concentering sources of 
influence, very formidable ; and in striking at their power 
in the person of Earl Archibald in 1681, the government 
acted, almost avowedly, on the pohcy which had been put 
in force, on repeated occasions, against the great Earls of 
regality above enumerated during preceding centuries, and 
of which a recent example had been exhibited in the 
forfeiture and ruin of the house of Ruthven, Earls of Gowrie, 
after the celebrated conspiracy in 1600. It was . on this 
last precedent, and in the view of similar results, that Argyll's 
ruin was determined upon by the Scottish administration in 
"" Properly " MacCailean Mor," i,e. '' Son of the Great Colin." 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 2 1 

1 68 1, his estates confiscated, and his hereditary jurisdic- 
tions assigned to others — that over Argyllshire, in particular, 
being entrusted to his especial enemy, the Marquis of Athol, 
with the direct object, according to Fountainhall, " to engage 
him to their party and perfect Argyll's ruin ; for parcelling 
out his lands and jurisdiction in the hands of so many great 
persons, is the high-way to lay a perpetual bar on the hopes 
of a restitution to Argyll, for all the sharers will obstruct it." 
It is not indeed likely that it was intended to take his life 
in 1 681; King James (then Duke of York, and High 
Commissioner at Edinburgh) expressly asserts the contrary 
in his memoirs, stating (and there is no doubt it is the 
truth) that it was the King's and his own object to get him 
more into their power and deprive him of those '' jurisdic- 
tions and superiorities which he and his predecessors had 
surreptitiously acquired and most tyrannically exercised," 
and which the King "thought too much for any one 
subject " — thus confirming in all respects the independent 
testimony of Fountainhall. Argyll and his friends un- 
doubtedly thought that his head was in danger, and his 
escape was arranged accordingly. The effect of this escape, 
thus thwarting the policy of the government, produced 
effects which had not been calculated upon. Dread of his 
power had animated the administration — his qualification of 
the test offered an opportunity for " lowing " or depressing 
him ; his previous unpopularity had encouraged them to 
avail themselves of that opportunity ; but when the sentence 
was announced, the severity of the punishment as con- 
trasted with the slightness of the offence, his subsequent 
escape as it was supposed from death, the civil death 
actually inflicted upon him by forfeiture, the confiscation of 
his property, and the ruin of his family and friends, con- 
tributed to turn the tide of public feeling and elevate him 
into the rank of a martyr for political and religious liberty, — 
while this again reacted upon himself and his family through 
the exasperation of the government, an exasperation aggra- 



122 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

vated in bitterness month after month during the ensuing 
four years through the disquiet in which the country was 
kept by the rumours constantly arriving from abroad of a 
meditated invasion from Holland. As regards the original 
question of Argyll's " expHcation " or qualification of the 
test, on which the whole of this process of iniquity pro- 
ceeded, the feeling of the pubhc mind in England was 
sufficiently expressed by a saying of the Earl of Halifax to 
King Charles, " that he knew not the Scots law, but by the 
law of England that explication could not hang his dog ; " 
while the general sentiment in Scotland expressed itself in 
a sufficiently droll manner, as narrated by Fountainhall. It 
seems " the children of Heriot's Hospital, finding that the 
dog which keeped the yairds of that Hospital had a public 
charge and office, they ordained him to take the Test, and 
offered him the paper ; but he, loving a bone rather than it, 
absolutely refused it ; then they rubbed it over with butter 
(which they called an explication of the Test, in imitation 
of Argyll), and he licked off the butter but did spit out the 
paper ; for which they held a jury on him, and in derision 
of the sentence against Argyll, they found the dog guilty ot 
treason, and actually hanged him." 

A period of suffering for the whole of Argyle's family, 
and for the Countess Anna in particular, ensued upon his 
flight. Argyll's forfeiture cut off their means of subsistence ; 
they were, by Scottish law, forfeited along with him, and 
were reduced for a time to great distress — the "- children," 
according to Macky, " starving," in so much so that Lord 
Lothian, Lady Jean's cousin-german, married her, according 
to that authority, " purely out of a principle of honour, be- 
lieving they suff'ered wrongfully." The Countess's house at 
Stirling remained apparently untouched, but her income 
lapsed, and nothing remained to her except her revenues 
from the small estate of Wester Pitcorthie adjacent to 
Balcarres, amounting to four thousand marks a year, which 
had been settled on her as her jointure by her first husband. 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 123 

The memory however of early days was fresh at Whitehall 
in the midst of all this sanctioned injustice ; and King 
Charles interfered for her behoof by a ^^ signature," or 
order, on the commissioners appointed for administering 
the forfeited estates, on the 4th March 1682, (followed by 
a charter under the Great Seal, bearing the same date,) 
securing to her a provision of seven thousand marks per 
a7mum out of the Argyll revenues, — a sum, that is to say, 
equivalent to that which had been previously provided as 
her jointure in the event of Earl Archibald's death — pre- 
cedency being assigned to her claims over those of any 
other creditor; the grant proceeding, as is stated, on the 
consideration of the King's recollection of the many and 
faithful services done to him by the late Earl of Balcarres, 
and the severe hardships which Anna Countess of Balcarres 
(lately Countess of Argyll) had herself suffered after her 
husband's death ; and for the reason, moreover, that she 
and her first husband's family had constantly stood up for 
and vindicated the royal authority during the late abominable 
usurpation under Cromwell. Here again, however, the 
poverty of the country, or at least the exhaustion of the 
estates administered, interfered with the King's wish and 
the Countess's benefit ; for the commissioners had only, in 
April 1684, paid her four thousand six hundred marks ; and, 
although there was then remaining due to her four thousand 
four hundred more " of bygones preceding the year 1683," 
her petition for payment was only satisfied to the extent ot 
two thousand four hundred. The consequence of all this 
was, under the circumstances, much privation; and the 
token of its pressure within the first year after Argyll's for- 
feiture and flight is exhibited in a touching manner by the 
fact that in a fresh inventory of her movables at " Argyll's 
Lodging" in Stirling, draAvn up in 1682, almost all her 
pretty things, her " womanly furniture," the graceful garniture 
of her " closet," or bower, had disappeared — only eight, for 
example, of her porcelain pots remained to her — the rest 



1 24 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

had been parted with, probably (as on the former occasion) 
for the supply of her husband's need in his difficulties and 
foreign exile, or for the support of his family in their destitu- 
tion at home ; at all events she and her household gods 
were once more parted, — -while it is equally noteworthy 
that, while sternly sacrificing her own belongings, she left all 
the rich hangings, cabinets, and other articles of luxury 
intact, as being still in her opinion her husband's by right, 
and not to become her own till after his death — holding, 
as she of course did, his forfeiture to be unjust, and looking 
forward to its rescission and his return home under happier 
auspices. 

The only notice of the Countess Anna as appearing and 
acting in public during this period occurs in December 
1683, on some letters of Argyll, written in cypher, having 
been intercepted and sent down to Scotland, implicating 
him in the Rye House plot. She was summoned before 
the Privy Council to give the key to the cyphers and 
figures in which the letters in question were written. She 
stated that for a long while past, ever since her husband's 
difference with the Macleans about the island of Mull, when 
his correspondence had been similarly intercepted, he had 
been accustomed to write to her and his friends, even of 
his private affairs, in cypher, and to that cypher she had a 
key ; " but upon the breaking out of the English plot, she, 
judging such a way of corresponding dangerous and liable 
to suspicion, she burnt it four months ago ; and she cannot 
read nor expound them ; but that all the letters she got " — 
(" so," observes the annalist in a parenthesis, ^* she acknow- 
ledges corresponding, which in a wife from, a traitor husband 
is in strict law still criminal ") — " contained nothing of the 
plot, but anent his own private affairs and his friends ; and 
it were a cruel law if a wife were obliged to detect and 
reveal these." " The Junto," adds Fountainhall, "were not 
satisfied with her answers, as disingenuous to their thoughts." 
Her remonstrance seems, however, to have silenced them 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 125 

for the time ; but, having got a clue to the cypher subse- 
quently, and those who supplied it " touching," as is said, 
" the Earl of Balcarres " as indicated by a particular 
" hieroglyph," they again sent for the Countess, who, finding 
" her own son thus touched," explained that the symbol in 
question " was only a relative particle in the key between 
her husband and her," — which unluckily, through the sup- 
posed context, brought Lord Maitland, a son-in-law of 
Argyll's, into suspicion. The final result proved that the 
key in which the letters under suspicion had been written 
was a different one from that in which the Countess and 
her husband had corresponded, and had only been confided 
to three persons, of whom the Countess was not one ; and 
thus she had no further trouble in the business. 

INIatters continued in this state of suspense and misery 
— so far as the Countess Anna and her daughters were con- 
cerned — till 1685, when they attained their climax. Charles 
II. was then dead, and the jealousy and dread with which 
James II. 's accession was viewed alike by the Presbyterians 
in Scotland and the Anglicans and Protestant dissenters in 
England, encouraged Argyll and the Duke of Monmouth 
to invade Britain in concert, in hopes of shaking off the 
yoke of a Roman Catholic sovereign. The enterprise, both 
in Scotland and England, turned out an utter failure. Mon- 
mouth was taken prisoner and executed; Argyll was 
equally unfortunate in the north. Neither of them was 
supported in the manner he had expected. " Argyll," says 
Fountainhall, " minding the former animosities and dis- 
contents in the country, thought to have found us all alike 
combustible tinder, that he had no more ado than to hold 
the match to us, and we should all blaze up in a rebellion ; 
but the times are altered, and the people are scalded so 
severely with the former insurrections that they are frightened 
to venture on a new one." Sailing round the north of 
Scotland, Argyll landed in his own country of Argyllshire, 
and was immediately joined by Sir Duncan Campbell of 



126 Memoir of Lady Amia Mackenzie, 

Auchinbreck with two hundred of his men, partly out of 
zeal for the Protestant cause, partly out of fidelity and 
affection to his chief, and as holding his lands by charter 
from the Argyll family on the obligation of acting as their 
Lieutenant-Generai, — a feudal duty which he afterwards 
pleaded, but unavailingly, in as much as the higher obligation 
of obedience to the sovereign controlled it. About two 
thousand men, chiefly of his clan and vassals, came in at 
Argyll's summons ; and with this and other contingents 
he descended upon the Lowlands ; but nis wish to engage 
the royal troops, and, failing that, to march on Glasgow, 
being overruled, the army melted away ; and at last, bidding 
the remnant disperse, and wholly unattended, he attempted 
to make his escape on a pony, disguised in the country 
dress and bonnet of a peasant. Near Paisley, and in the 
dusk of the evening, he was noticed by two servants of Sir 
John Shaw of Greenock, who were driving a saddle-horse, 
and their beast being weary, they summoned him to sur- 
render his own, as being fresher, for their purpose. Mis- 
conceiving their object, and supposing himself to be known, 
he resisted and fired at them ; a drunken weaver, wakened 
by the noise, came out of his cottage with a rusty broad- 
sword, and, crying that he must be one of Argyll's men, 
struck him on the head so violently that he fell to the 
ground, betraying his quality by the exclamation, " Unfor- 
tunate Argyll !" uttered in his fall. He was taken prisoner 
to Glasgow, and the next day, the 20th June, to Edin- 
burgh, where he was warded in the Castle. 

On the news reaching the Privy Council, on the 15th 
May, of Argyll having landed in arms, they at once de- 
spatched messengers to Stirling to arrest his wife, the 
Countess Anna, and Lady Sophia Lindsay; they were 
brought to Edinburgh and imprisoned there, the Countess 
in the Castle, and Lady Sophia in the Tolbooth, or common 
gaol. The activity and energy of both these ladies rendered 
them objects, doubtless, of jealousy and suspicion, and might 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 2 7 

justify their separate confinement ; but the incarceration of 
Lady Sophia among common felons was admittedly, accord- 
ing to Fountainhall, ^' because by her means Argyll had 
formerly escaped," and they feared that she and her mother, 
Lord Neill Campbell, Argyll's brother, and his son James, 
who were taken up at the same time, might join with him. 
And a further indignity was offered them. When touching 
at the Orkneys, two of Argyll's gentlemen having been 
captured, he had sent a long-boat on shore and carried off 
seven gentlemen by way of reprisals, threatening that if 
any injury was done to his friends he would retaHate. The 
Countess and her fellow-prisoners were now informed that 
'-'• as he used the Orkney prisoners, so should they be used," 
— and there can be httle doubt the Council would have 
kept their word had the former been ill treated. Charles 
Campbell, Argyll's second son, was in his father's company, 
and, although Lady Sophia was not as yet his wife, their 
engagement seems to have been known, and her anxieties 
must have been much augmented by the knowledge of his 
danger. 

Lady Henrietta, in the meanwhile, had had the pain of 
parting with her husband when he left Auchinbreck to join 
his chief at the first news of his arrival. In a few days, 
having received sure intelligence that all was lost, she 
started forthwith for Edinburgh in the greatest anxiety 
about him, — at Falkirk she came up with Argyll, who was 
thus far on his road to Edinburgh as a prisoner — " a 
mournful sight," she says, " for one who bore him so great 
affection," — but being in deep disguise, she dared not ap- 
proach him. She kept up with him however in the rear, 
till her horse failed. The following morning (the 21st 
June) she reached Edinburgh, and in the course of that day 
was relieved by hearing of her husband having effected his 
escape. He had in fact been seen and recognised in the 
Canongate of Edinburgh at the very moment when Argyll 
was coming in, on the evening of the 20th; but the strict 



128 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

search made for him by the myrmidons of the government 
was unsuccessful ; and he probably remained in close hid- 
ing for some days afterwards. ^' I was then," says Lady 
Henrietta, " more enabled to make inquiry after my dear 
afflicted mother, who was harshly treated ; and seeing her 
under so great affliction by the approaching suffering of 
such an endeared husband (and had no access to him. " — 
although both were prisoners in the same castle — "till 
eight days after this fatal stroke), this did again renew a 
very mournful prospect of matters, which at this time had a 
very strange aspect, so that, if the Lord of life had not sup- 
ported, we had sunk under the trouble." 

Matters were now pursued to extremity with the recap- 
tured prisoner. Argyll's recent invasion would have ren- 
dered him amenable to the pains of treason in their most 
aggravated form, had he not been previously legally dead in 
virtue of his original sentence, and thus (it was held) in- 
capable of crime subsequently thereto. He was therefore 
ordered for execution on the old offence, the qualifica- 
tion of the Test oath of 1681. "The day," proceeds 
Lady Henrietta, and I shall transcribe the passage ver- 
batim — "the day being appointed for his suffering, she" 
(the Countess Anna) '' had access to him, and, though 
under deep distress, was encouraged by seeing the bounty 
and graciousness of the Lord to him, in enabling him, with 
great courage and patience, to undergo what he was to 
meet with ; the Lord helping him to much fervency in 
supplication and nearness in pouring out his heart with 
enlargedness of affection, contrition, and resignation ; which 
did strangely fortify and embolden him to maintain his in- 
tegrity before his merciless enemies ; and by this he was 
helped at times to great cheerfulness, and fortified under his 
trial and the testimony he was to give of his zeal and fervour 
to that righteous cause he was honoured to suffer lor. 

" In that morning that his dear life was to be surrendered 
to the God that gave it, he uttered great evidences of joy 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 29 

that the Lord had blessed him with the time he had in 
Holland/ as the sweetest time of his life, and the merciful- 
ness of his escape to that end; but rejoiced more in that 
complete escape he was to have that day from sin and 
sorrow, — yet in a little fell into some damp, and in parting 
with my mother was observed to have more concern than in 
any other circumstance formerly ; which to her was a bitter 
parting, to be taken from him whom she loved so dearly ; 
but in a little time after he recovered a little, and as the 
time of his death drew near, which was some hours after, 
the Lord was pleased wonderfully to shine on him to the 
dispelling of clouds and fears, and to the admitting him to 
a more clear and evident persuasion of His blessed favour, 
and the certainty of being so soon happy, — of which he ex- 
pressed his sense in his last letter to my dear mother, which 
could not but sw^eeten her lot in her greatest sorrow, and 
was ground of greatest thankfulness that the Lord helped 
him to the last to carry with such magnanimity, resolution, 
contentment of mind, and true valour, under this dark-like 
providence, to endless blessedness. And though the loss 
of so great a Protestant was grief of mind to any that had 
any tender heart, and which to friends was an universal, 
inexpressible, breaking-like dispensation, yet in so far as he 
was enabled under cruel suffering to such tranquillity, peace, 
and comfort, this was to them ground of comfort and an 
answer to their request, — but to others, that were enemies, 
was shame and confusion, as appeared after to many that 
had the least hand in his first sentence. He laid down his 
dear hfe June 30, 1685. This morning liberty at length 
was obtained for my seeing him, but not till he was brought 
to the Council-house, where I was enabled to go to him ; 
where he had a composed edifying carriage, and, after en- 
dearing expressions, said, ^ We must not part like those not 
to meet again ! ' and he went from thence with the greatest 
assurance." 

To complete this sad story — the last melancholy episode 



1 3 o Memoir of Lady A nna Mackenzie. 

in the life of the subject of this memoir — I must have re- 
course to the " History of the Sufferings of the Church of 
Scotland " by Wodrow, — the narratives may easily be com- 
bined, and I am unwilling to alter either. I will merely 
premise that, his death having been determined upon, " all 
the civility imaginable " was shown to Argyll by the govern- 
ment which condemned him to the block. 

" The time came when the Earl must for ever leave the 
Castle and go out to his execution ; and he was accompanied 
with several of his friends down the street to the Laigh 
Council-house, where he was ordered to be carried . before 
his execution. Here I find the Earl writing his last letter 
to his dear and excellent lady, which is so valuable a remain 
of this dying saint that I should wrong the reader not 
to insert it : — 

'' * Edinburgh, Laigh Council-house. 
'' 'Dear heart! 

*' As God is himself unchangeable, so He hath been always 
good and gracious to me, and no place alters it ; only I acknowledge I 
am sometimes less capable of a due sense of it ; but now, above all my 
life, I thank God, I am sensible of His presence with me, with great 
assurance of His favour through Jesus Christ ; and I doubt not it will 
continue till I be in glory. 

" 'Forgive me all my faults, and now comfort thyself in Him, in 
whom only true comfort is to be found. The Lord be with thee, bless 
thee, and comfort thee, my dearest ! 

*' * Adieu, my dear ! 

' ' ' Thy faithful and loving husband, 
'* 'Argyll.' 

" Whether it was at that time, or some former part of 
this day, that he wrote the following letter to his daughter- 
in-law Lady Sophia, I cannot be positive. The Earl had 
an extraordinary value and affection for her, and the two 
letters generally go together in the copies I have seen, so I 
am apt to think they are written at the same time. Sure it 
deserves a room here : — 

" ' My dear Lady Sophia, 

' ' ' What shall I say in this gi'eat day of the Lord, wherein, 
in the midst of a cloud, I find a fair sunshine ? I can wish no more for 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 3 1 

you but that the Lord may comfort you and shine upon you as he doth 
upon me, and give you the same sense of his love in staying in the 
world as 1 have in going out of it. 

'' 'Adieu! 

'* * Argyll. 

'* * P.S. JMy blessing to dear Earl of Balcarres. The Lord touch 
his heart and incline him to His fear ! ' 

" This day, and probably at this very time, the Earl 
^\Tote a letter to another of his dear relations, Lady Hen- 
rietta Campbell, sister to the former, and lady to Sir Duncan 
Campbell of Auchinbreck. This excellent and singularly 
religious person being yet alive, should I say but a little 
of what I might and could say of her, it would offend, and 
her excessive modesty forbids me ; and therefore, without 
saying more, I shall add it here : — 

" * Dear Lady Henrietta, June 30, 1685. 

" ' I pray God to sanctify and bless this lot to you. Our con- 
cerns are strangely mixed, — the Lord look on them ! I know all shall 
turn to good to them that fear God and hope in His mercy. So I 
know you do, and that you may still do it more and more is my wish 
for you. The Lord comfort you ! I am, 

* ' * Your loving father and servant, 

'' 'Argyll.'" 

One more of these last letters of farewell, but dated 
earlier in the day, has lately been discovered, addressed to 
the Earl's second son John, and this too is interesting through 
its allusion to the Countess Anna : — 

** Dear John, Edinburgh Castle, June 30, 1685. 

" We parted suddenly, but I hope shall meet happily in 
heaven. I pray God bless you, and if you seek Him, He will be found 
of you. My wife will say all to you ; pray love and respect her. I am, 
* * Your loving father, 

'' Argyll." 

It was for favour to this son, John Campbell, that, 
according to Fountainhall, Argyll interceded earnestly dur- 
ing his rest at the Laigh Council-house, pleading that he 
had only accompanied him " without arms, not being able 



132 Memoir of Lady A nna Mackenzie. 

to fight through a debihty in his hands." He " pled much " 
at the same time for all his children, and for the " poor 
people " who had been with him, his clansmen and vassals, 
as having been for the most part constrained to follow him 
in his late rebelhon. 

After writing the preceding letters he proceeded to the 
place of execution. On reaching " the midst of the scaffold," 
he " took leave of his friends, heartily embracing some of 
them in his arms, and taking others by the hand. He de- 
livered some tokens to the Lord Maitland, to be given to 
his lady and children; then he stripped himself of his 
clothes and delivered them to his friends, and, being ready 
to go to the block, he desired the executioner might not be 
permitted to do his office till he gave the sign by his hand ; 
and, falling down on his knees upon the stool, embraced 
the maiden (as the instrument of beheading is called) very 
pleasantly, and with great composure he said, ' it was the 
sweetest maiden ever he kissed, it being a mean to finish 
his sin and misery, and his inlet to glory, for which he 
longed.' And in that posture, having prayed a little space 
- within himself, he uttered these words three times, ^ Lord 
Jesus, receive me into thy glory!' and then gave the sign 
by lifting up his hand, and the executioner did his work, 
and his head was separated from his body." 

" Thus died," adds Wodrow, " this excellent and truly 
great and good man." " Thus fell," exclaims Fountainhall, 
" that tall and mighty cedar in our Lebanon, the last of an 
ancient and honourable family, who rose to their greatness 
in King Robert the Bruce's time by their constant ad- 
herence to the king, being then Knights of Lochow, and 
continued doing good services to their king and country till 
this man's father proved disloyal; and ever since state 
policy required the humbhng of it, being turned too formi- 
dable in the Highlands with their vast jurisdictions and 
regalities." It is always interesting to observe the views 
taken by contemporaries, and to contrast them with those 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 3 3 

of critical historians — not always indeed more just — in 
recent times. To Wodrow Argyll was the impersonation 
and martyr of Protestantism and civil liberty — to Fountain- 
hall that of feudal power and individual independence. 
Both were right in the partial aspect they took of an event 
which made a great impression at the time on the public 
mind. The more sober and limited verdict of posterity has 
been well expressed in Sir Walter Scott's judgment, — " When 
this nobleman's death is considered as the consequence of 
a sentence passed against him for presuming to comment 
upon and explain an oath which was self-contradictory, it 
can only be termed a judicial murder." 

It was noted at the moment that " about the time of 
Argyll's execution one of his grandchildren, a son of Lorn's, 
threw himself, being six or seven years old, over a window 
at Lethington, three storeys high, and was not the worse j 
from which miracle this inference was made that the said 
family and estate would yet again recover and overcome 
this sour blast." The gossips were right. The child lived 
to become the illustrious John Duke of Argyll and Green- 
wich, the 

*' Argyll, the state's whole thunder born to wdeld, 
And shake alike the senate and the field " 

of the poet Pope and of the " Heart of Midlothian." 

I would note here with satisfaction that, after Argyll's 
death, and when his son Lord Lorn, afterwards the first 
Duke of Argyll, was in great difficulties in London through 
the forfeiture of the family, Colin, the " dear Earl of Bal- 
carres" of Argyll's letter to Lady Sophia, interceded with 
James II. and obtained for him a pension of ;£^8oo a-year. 
Many years afterwards, when the rival star was in the 
ascend.ant, and Cohn's head was in danger through his 
share in the rebelhon of 1 7 1 5 on behalf of the exiled Stuarts, 
John Duke of Argyll, Lord Lorn's son (the child mentioned 
above), to whose mihtary skill the defeat of the Jacobites 
was mainly owing, was reminded of this good turn, and 



1 34 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

repaid it by arranging with Colin' s and his own common 
friend the Duke of Marlborough that, on Colin's surrender- 
ing himself, he should be sent to Balcarres under charge of 
a single dragoon, without further liability. Colin resided 
there, thus guarded, till the indemnity ; and the two men — 
the grey-headed Cavalier and statesman and the young 
Hanoverian trooper — thus strangely made companions, are 
remembered in local tradition to this day as being con- 
stantly seen skating together, a friendly pair, during the 
ensuing winter, on the Loch of Kilconquhar. 

The Countess Anna was released from prison after her 
husband's execution, and immediately started for England 
with her daughter Henrietta, whose husband Sir Duncan 
had effected his escape to Dantzig ; they spent three months 
at Windsor and London in attendance at the Court, " endea- 
vouring," says Lady Henrietta, " any favour that could be 
obtained for him, both as to liberty and maintenance, when 
sequestrate as to our fortune." Sir Duncan being a prime 
offender, nothing could be effected for him, and mother 
and daughter parted, the mother to return to Scotland, 
Lady Henrietta to cross to Holland, where her husband 
awaited her. A few months afterwards she too returned to 
Scotland to fetch over her only child, " and to look after 
our little concerns, that had then a very ruined-like aspect. 
The times being troublesome, this obliged me," says she, 
" to come in disguise to a dear friend Mr. Alexander Mon- 
crieff his house, where I had much kind welcome and 
sympathy from some who are now in glory and others of 
them yet alive, whose sympathy and undeserved concern is 
desired to be borne in mind with much gratitude. But any 
uncertain abode I had was with my dear mother at Stirling, 
whose tender care and affection has been greatly evidenced 
to all hers, and particularly to such as desire to have more 
of the sense thereof than can be expressed as the bounden 
duty of such ; and I cannot but reckon it among my greatest 
earthly blessings to have been so trysted, having early lost 



Memoir of Lady Anna Macke7izie, 1 3 5 

my dear father, eminent in his day, when insensible of this 
stroke ; and when so young, not two years old, and de- 
prived of his fatherly instruction, it may justly be ground 
of acknowledgment that the blessed Father of the fatherless, 
in whose care I was left, did preserve so tender-hearted a 
mother, whose worth and exemplariness in many respects 
may be witness against us if undutiful or unthankful to the 
great Giver of our mercies." 

After her return to Holland, Sir Duncan and Lady 
Henrietta resided at Rotterdam till the Revolution — in 
difficulties certainly, but cheered in their distress by the 
substantial kindness of Mary Princess of Orange and her 
husband. Sir Duncan accompanied William to England 
when he sailed on the eventful expedition which worked 
so marvellously on the destinies of Britain. Lady Henrietta 
followed them to the sea-side and witnessed the embarkation, 
but she often described afterwards, with gratitude for the 
Divine interposition, the check and reverse which the 
gallant fleet sustained in being driven back by a tremendous 
storm, and thus saved from encounter with the French 
squadron which lay in wait for them, w^hile their boats and 
other matters necessary for effecting their landing in 
England had likewise been left behind by accident. 
William's ship was the first to return to port, and Lady 
Henrietta had the relief of hearing from her husband's hps 
of his safety. They proceeded together by water to 
Helvoetsluys that night, but it was three or four days before 
they could get accommodation in a country village in the 
neighbourhood, so crowded was the place with Scots and 
English. They remained there till the final embarkation 
on the ist November 1688, on the day after which, in Lady 
Henrietta's words, ^'we who were left behind journeyed to 
our respective homes, some of us on foot and some in 
waggons, with more cheerfulness and hope as to the 
matters in hand, so as the former pressure of mind and 
anxiety was strangely removed." Everything in those days 



136 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

among the Presbyterians had a touch of superstition inherent 
in it, and although Lady Henrietta has not mentioned it 
herself, the garrulous Wodrow reports that after her hus- 
band had " embarked with the Prince," on the first or false 
start which, as above mentioned, the storm defeated, " and 
after she came back, she sleeped but little that night, — that 
in the morning after she fell to a slumber and had this re- 
markable dream, which she communicated to the Countess 
of Sutherland (Sunderland) and the Princess of Orange, who 
were much taken with it. She thought she was at the fleet, 
and they came safe to the coast of England, and at the 
place where they landed there was a great brazen wall 
before them. She thought they resolved to land, and when 
they were endeavouring to get over it, it fell all down before 
them in Bibles. She could not but reflect afterwards, upon 
the success of the expedition, upon this as some emblem of 
that clear knowledge and the settlement of the gospel and 
the use-makers of the Scripture in opposition to Popery, 
that followed the happy Revolution. This person," adds 
Wodrow, " is a lady of great piety and good sense^ and 
no visionary." 

Charles Campbell, the future husband of Lady Sophia 
Lindsay, was also one of the party of exiles who returned 
from Holland in 1688. His adventures during the interval 
had been sufficiently remarkable. He had been sent on 
shore by his father to send the crois-tara^ or fiery cross, 
through the country and levy troops, but fell ill of a fever, 
and was seized in that state by the Marquis of Athol, who, 
in virtue of his newly-acquired justiciary power, resolved to 
hang him, ill as he was, at his father's gate of Inverary. 
The Privy Council, however, at the intercession of several 
ladies who believed that he was married, as he was in 
reahty, I beheve, engaged, to Lady Sophia, stopped the 
execution, and ordered him to be carried prisoner into Edin- 
burgh. He was tried before the Justiciary Court on the 
2ist of August 1685, forfeited on his own confession, and 



Me7noir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 137 

sentenced to banishment, never to return on pain of death. 
His forfeiture, Hke that of Sir Duncan and the rest of 
Argyll's family and adherents, was rescinded at the Revolu- 
tion ; and his marriage with Lady Sophia followed shortly 
aftenvards. 

I may add one word more respecting Lady Henrietta 
and her husband. Sir Duncan's friends and vassals had 
defended his castle against the Marquis of AthoFs men in 
1685 for some time, and at length agreed with them to 
surrender it on condition that the furniture, papers, etc., 
should be preserved, and they allowed to convey them safe 
to Lady Henrietta. " These terms," I quote Wodrow's 
memoranda, " they broke ; and, instead of that, they killed 
some of Auchinbreck's relations, garrisoned the house, and 
rifled all in it. The commander of the party, after he had 
taken away and destroyed most of what was in the house, 
he cast his eyes upon the charter- chest, which was of a very 
peculiar make, and very curious. He broke it open, and 
turned out the papers on the chamber-floor w^here it stood, 
and sent away the chest for his own use. After all was 
thus disposed of, there w^ere a party of soldiers lay in the 
house, I think eight or ten weeks. After the Revolution, 
when Auchinbreck came home, that house was just ruined, 
and open to everybody. He went not to it, but to another. 
After they had been some time there, Lady Henrietta in- 
clined to go up to it, and told him she would have him to 
send up some to see for his papers. He told her that no 
doubt they were all destroyed, and acquainted her with the 
fore-mentioned accompt. She answered, she would go up 
and look after what had been done to the house. When 
she came, she found them all lying in a heap on the floor j 
and she caused put them up in several trunks and carry 
them to Edinburgh ; and when they were looked through, 
there was not one paper of value awanting, though they had 
lien open for near four years ; which she said she thought 
was a token of God's favour to that family, in outwards." 



138 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

— The family of Auchinbreck was thus more fortunate than 
that of Lauderdale. When the Civil War broke out into 
intensity, their family papers were buried for security in the 
''- close," cloister, or court, of Balcarres, and remained there 
till the Restoration, when, on being disinterred, they were 
found to have been almost entirely destroyed by damp. 

The Countess Anna, victim of so many trials, survived 
these varied events for many years — years, however, still of 
incomplete satisfaction, of sorrow and anxiety, the Revolu- 
tion that restored her daughters and their husbands to her 
arms having deprived her of her son Earl Cohn. Colin, as 
I mentioned, after the defeat of KilHecrankie and his release 
from imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle, retired to the 
Continent, where he passed eight years in exile — rendered 
agreeable in some respects by his friendship and pleasant 
intercourse with the learned men of the day — in France and 
Holland. Eight years at the Countess Anna's time of life 
were a long period to look forward to, yet their parting in 
1692 was not their last. Towards the end of 1700, being 
a great pedestrian, Colin walked from Utrecht to the Hague 
to solicit the interest of Carstares, Secretary of State for 
Scotland, and a member of a family belonging to the neigh- 
bourhood of Balcarres. Carstares represented his case to 
the king, William of Orange, Colin's early friend, as that of 
" a man whom he had once favoured, and who was now 
in so low a condition that he had footed it from Utrecht 
that morning to desire him to speak for him." " If that be 
the case," replied Wilham, " let him go home ; he has 
suffered enough." His mother had thus the happiness of 
embracing him again before her death. 

During these eight years of hope deferred, the Countess 
Anna had ever the "salt-sea foam" of the German Ocean 
before her eyes, separating her from the land of her son's 
exile. In 1689, on Earl CoHn's imprisonment, followed by 
his expatriation, she removed from Stirling and settled 
definitively at Balcarres, invested by her son with supreme 



Memoir of Lady A mia Mackenzie. 1 3 9 

direction over all his home affairs as " factrix, " or adminis- 
trator, in his absence. She now once more devoted herself 
to her familiar task of redeeming incumbrances and paying 
off such burdens as still remained upon the estate of Bal- 
carres ; and this she did in many instances out of her own 
means; while at the same time, in 1692, she voluntarily 
restricted her jointure of seven thousand marks per aiimcm 
from the Argyll estate to five thousand, " for the love and 
favour," as the document states, " which she has and bears 
to the said Earl" of Argyll " and his family, and for the 
standing thereof," — the Argyll estates being still at that 
time greatly embarrassed. Her economy had before this, 
in 1690, enabled her to pay from her o^vn funds a sum of 
ten thousand marks, the dowry of her namesake Lady Anna 
Lindsay, Earl Colin's eldest daughter, when married to the 
Earl of Kellie ; and she that same year renounced in Earl 
Colin's favour various sums of money in which he was per- 
sonally indebted to her. She had some years previously, I 
do not know at what precise date, made over to Colin the 
pension of one thousand a year settled upon her and her 
two sons by Charles II. ; and this Earl Colin had forfeited 
at the Revolution by " following an interest which " (I quote 
his own words) ^' in gratitude I thought I was bound to 
do,'' — her means must therefore have been much less now 
than formerly. — And thus she proceeded on her pilgrimage, 
as I have said, for these eight years more — years of active 
usefulness, although of advancing age and infirmity, but 
bright still, and cheerful in spirit — herself the centre of 
love to aU around her. 

Three years before her son's return in 1697, or shortly 
afterwards, the memory of her long-lost daughter Anna, 
who had been converted to Roman-Catholicism the year of 
the Restoration, was brought vividly back to the aged 
Countess by the publication of Richard Baxter's posthumous 
autobiography in that year. Baxter in his narrative of the 
event speaks of Lady Anna's ecclesiastical doubts as " pre- 



I40 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

tended," — he states that on a servant being sent after her 
coach, and overtaking her in Lincoln's Inn Fields, after she 
had left her mother's house to return no more, she said that 
she merely went to see a friend, and would return, which 
he represents as a falsehood; and he further states that 
" she complained to the Queen-mother of her mother, as if 
she used her hardly for rehgion, which was false ; in a word," 
says Baxter, " her mother told me that before she turned 
Papist she scarce ever heard a lie from her, and since then 
she could believe nothing that she said." Baxter's memory 
may probably have deceived him, wTiting of the matter 
many years afterwards, and strong prejudice pervades every 
line he has written on the subject; but her daughter's 
character, in its simple earnestness and truth, and every 
slight incident of the sad affair of 1660, even to the day 
and hour of the consummation of her bereavement, was 
vividly present to the mother's recollection after the lapse 
of thirty-six years ; and with a trembling and feeble hand 
she inscribed on the margin of the volume the following 
lines : — " I can say with truth I never in all my life did 
hear her lie, and what she said, if it was not true, it was by 
others suggested to her, as that she would come back on 
Wednesday; she believed she would, but they took her, 
alas ! from me, who never did see her more. The minister 
of Cupar," she adds, " Mr. John Makgill, did see her at Paris 
in the convent, — said she was a knowing and virtuous 
person, and had retained the saving principles of our 
religion." — I do not know when " Sister Anna Maria " 
went to her final rest, — it was during Baxter's lifetime ; but 
I have little doubt that mother and daughter, parted thus 
untimely for ever in this world, continued praying each for 
the other, night and day, till that hour arrived ; and that 
both looked forward with calm confidence to future reunion 
in that brighter world where all that is accidental and false 
falls off hke scales from the enfranchised spirit, and truth 
alone remains manifest in the light of eternal day. 



Memoir of Lady A nna Mackenzie, 1 4 1 

The volume which contains this touching vindication of 
a daughter's honesty belonged after the Countess's death to 
her daughter Henrietta, and was purchased at a stall in 
Glasgow many years ago by the father of the gifted author 
of the '^Horce Subsecivse" — more popularly known as the 
biographer of " Rab and his Friends." It has subsequently 
been associated by the kind gift of the owner with the 
other ancestral relics of the Crawford and Balcarres family. 

My task is now almost over. After Earl Colin' s return 
in 1700 I find few notices of the Countess Anna, but, such 
as they are, they are in keeping with her character, loving, 
and kindly, and generous to the last. Her granddaughter 
Lady Elizabeth Lindsay, the " Lady Betty " of her brother 
Earl James's tender affection, so touchingly shown in their 
correspondence, was then a little maiden of about thirteen 
or fourteen, glancing, like a beam of light, (as is the wont, 
generation after generation, in such old houses,) with her 
bright smile and her waving hair, through the wainscoted 
chambers and across the sun-flecked corridors of Balcarres ; 
and the last notices I have of the aged friend of the elder 
and younger Lauderdale, of the Rothes of 1640, and of Sir 
Robert Moray, are mixed up with accounts incurred, in 
June 1706, for a silk lutestring gown, bought by her as a 
present for the little EHzabeth, and with an additional pro- 
vision for her of a thousand marks, dated the ist October 
that same year, in token of " the singular love, favour, and 
affection we have and bear to the said Lady Elizabeth, our 
grandchild." Her signature in June is uncertain and broken, 
as if the result of a stroke of palsy ; but that of October is 
again firm and bold, as it had been originally. After this 
latter date, however, her name disappears from our family 
papers, and, I presume, she died, probably from a second 
paralytic stroke, soon afterwards. Whenever the summons 
might come, she was ready for it; and, like Christiana's, 
her token was assuredly " an arrow sharpened by love." 
Her Mr. Greatheart, indeed, had crossed the river long before 



142 Me7noir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

her, to the enjoyment of that " Saints' Rest " which is in 
EngUsh thought so imperishably connected with his name. 
But she had many friends to accompany her to the banks 
of Jordan. And it might have been said of her ending as 
is told of that elder and fair pilgrim of Bunyan's immortal 
Dream, — ^^ Now the day drew on that Christiana must be 
gone. So the road was full of people to see her take her 
journey. But, behold, all the banks beyond the river were 
full of horses and chariots, which were come down from 
above to accompany her to the city gate. So she came 
forth, and entered the river, with a beckon of farewell to 
those that followed her to the water-side. The last words 
that she was heard to say were, ' I come. Lord, to be 
with thee, and to bless thee.' So her children and friends 
returned to their places, for that those that waited for 
Christiana had carried her out of their sight. So she went, 
and called, and entered in at the gate, with all the cere- 
monies of joy that her husband Christian had entered with 
before her. At her departure her children wept. But " 
others " played upon the well-tuned cymbals and harps for 
joy. So all departed to their respective places." — She was 
buried beside the husband of her youth, and her young son 
Earl Charles, in the Chapel of Balcarres, — this at least is 
to be presumed, dying as she did at Balcarres, and no 
record of the interment appearing in the parish books. I 
infer therefore that the last rites were performed over her 
grave by her son Earl Cohn's dear friend, the nonjuring 
Bishop of Glasgow, who was a constant resident at Balcarres. 
However that may be, one thing may be accepted as certain, 
that her end was peace. Few lots in life have been so 
chequered as hers, and few doubtless ever laid down their 
head on the pillow of death with more heartfelt satisfaction. 



I need not attempt to analyse or appreciate a character 
which must have painted itself incidentally to the reader. 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 143 

line by^ line and touch by touch, in the foregoing pages. 
It may have been less than perfect in some respects 
(although I hardly feel justified in making even so limited 
an admission), — but it is not viy province, at least, to 
" peep and botanise " on a " mother's grave." A broader 
moral may however be safely drawn from the retrospect of 
the entire narrative, to wit, that the maxim '^ Whatever thy 
hand findeth to do, do it with thy might " is the only true 
rule for action, — that labour, the common lot of humanity, 
is not without its profit under the sun, when undertaken in 
the cause of truth, justice, and charity, — that wisdom is 
justified of her children even in this world, — that steady 
adherence to principle and unflinching fulfilment of duty 
bring peace at the last, — and that deep personal piety is 
not necessarily allied with bigotry and intolerance. 



It is always interesting to trace the connection of those 
w^hom we revere in past ages with their living representatives, 
in whose veins the blood that inspired their life and passions 
still circulates. The Countess Anna's descendants are 
numerous in the three kingdoms. My father, James Earl 
of Crawford and Balcarres, her great-great-grandson, is her 
present lineal representative, and heir-of-line likewise, 
through her, of the ancient Mackenzies of Kintail, as re- 
presentative of Colin Ruadh, first Earl of Seaforth — a 
highly prized honour. Her daughter Sophia died without 
children, but Lady Henrietta had one son. Sir James 
Campbell of Auchinbreck, whose male line becoming 
extinct in the person of a later Sir James in 181 2, her 
representation centered (if I mistake not) in the descendant 
of her granddaughter Anne, the Avife of Donald Cameron, 
the gallant and celebrated Lochiel of 1745, great-great- 
grandfather of the present chief of the Camerons. Sir Robert 
Anstruther, Bart, of Balcaskie, and John Anstruther Thom- 
son, Esq. of Charlton, are representatives of our heroine's 



144 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

granddaughter Lady Anna Lindsay, Countess of Kellie. 
The memory of Anna of Seaforth and of Lady Sophia in 
particular long lingered in our family recollection, and the 
charms and virtues of the latter had been commended by 
her nephew James Earl of Balcarres to the admiration of 
female members of the family still sumving in my boyhood. 
In the presence of these ladies and of some other ancient 
friends of our house the imagination was wonderfully trans- 
ported across the gulf of time to very distant days, to scenes 
famihar to us indeed still, but under their ancient aspect, 
and to personages usually viewed as beings of another 
world through the mist of history. One of these friends, 
the late Bishop of Ross, Moray, and the Isles, the last sur- 
vivor of the nonjuring Episcopal Clergy who had prayed 
for the exiled family of Stuart, was till very recently a living 
witness of tradition extending beyond the 'forty-five and the 
'fifteen to Bothwell Brig, the Great RebelHon, the wars of 
Montrose and the Covenant, and the promulgation of the 
Service Book; while the relationship of the Lindsays of 
Fife and Angus to these events was constantly on his 
tongue. Other members of the family circle, of the gentle 
sex, stood in such near kindred to the subject of this memoir, 
her first husband, and her daughters, that it was impossible 
not to feel almost face to face with them in such a presence. 
The widow of the grandson of the Countess Anna, Earl 
James of Balcarres, survived her husband above fifty years, 
and one of Countess Anna's great-granddaughters, the late 
Ehzabeth Lindsay, Countess of Hardwicke, died only 
eight years ago. The former survived till 1820, and the 
latter venerable lady was competent to speak in 1858 of her 
father having been " out " in the year 'fifteen, of Charles 11. 
having given away the bride at her grandfather Earl Colin's 
wedding, and of the merry monarch standing godfather to 
that grandfather's brother, her greatuncle, the Countess 
Anna's eldest son. Earl Charles, in the February of the year 
which witnessed his memorable escape after his defeat by 



Mc7noir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 145 

Cromwell at Worcester, 165 1. The map thus opened 
could even have been unrolled yet further in the hands of 
such a chronicler of the past, and with equally singular 
approximation. Most of us of course have seen our grand- 
sires, many have seen those of a yet remoter ascending 
degree, — there is nothing in this to excite surprise ; and yet 
it would be strange to hear any one say complacently, as 
Lady Hardwicke might have done only the other day with 
reference to the first husband of the heroine of this biography, 
that one bom in the reign of the son of Mary Queen of 
Scots, in the lifetime of Lord Bacon, one year after the 
execution of Sir Walter Raleigh, two years after the com- 
paratively early death of Shakespeare, and when Milton 
was only ten years old, was her great-grandfather. 



POSTSCRIPTUM. 



Since the preceding Memoir was printed, I have been favoured 
by Mr. Vere Irving with the perusal of his transcript of the 
Lauderdale Correspondence between the years 1656 and 1666. 
This perusal has confirmed the impressions regarding the 
character of Charles II., and the policy which prompted the 
restoration of Episcopacy after the Restoration which I have ex- 
pressed in the preceding pages. The correspondence has, in 
fact, given me a higher opinion of the King, personally, and of 
his Scottish ministers, than I had previously entertained. The 
general impression conveyed by it may be stated as follows : — 

We find Charles throughout governing, with no careless hand 
— holding clear ideas of public policy ; and working them out — 
always accessible to the calls of business, a, hard-working man, 
hearing all that was to be said, and reading everything presented 
to him attentively, never committing himself to premature de- 
cisions, but generally saying nothing at the moment, and re- 
serving time for thought. We find him alive to the sentiments 
of honour and the claims of justice. Great freedom of observa- 
tion and familiarity of intercourse subsisted between himself and 
his ministers, especially Lauderdale, who occasionally said home- 
truths in a very plain-spoken manner ; but the will of the King 
and the duty of obedience are always taken for granted as 
supreme. On the other hand, the warmest sentiment of personal 
attachment mingles with the expressions of loyalty, and divests 
them of any suspicion of servility. This attachment and, I may 
say, admiration for Charles personally, runs through the whole 
correspondence as between Lauderdale, Rothes, Sir Robert 
Moray, Tweeddale, and others. They constantly speak of him, 
to each other, as " our dear master," — they continually express 
their reliance on his justice and goodness. It is, in fact, Charles, 
the " King of Scots," the feudal king surrounded by his peers, — 
and yet wearing his feudalism with a difference (as it were) from 
constitutional influences — that figures throughout these letters ; 
and, in this character, everything bears reference to him ; he is 
the common centre, looked upon by every Scot at home and 



148 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

abroad — in France, in Sweden, in Russia — as his " native prince," 
his protector against injustice and wrong, his referee, umpire, 
and extricator in cases of difficulty, and the source of all his 
worldly honour and advantage. Charles's urbanity and personal 
kindness (and, I may add incidentally, his affection and tender- 
ness for his wife, Catherine of Braganza) equally strike us in 
the incidental allusions and reports of conversations and in- 
terviews given by the correspondents, and especially by Sir 
Robert Moray. Neither King nor ministers, although thus 
localised at Whitehall, have much of England about them in 
their intercourse and tone of thought ; and on one occasion when 
it had been suggested that some charge against Glencairn, the 
Scottish Chancellor, should be investigated by the authority (it 
would appear) of the English House of Peers, Lauderdale's sense 
of national independence bursts out in a letter to Moray (he was 
then at Edinburgh) with startling vehemence. " That motion," 
(he says) '^ for examining the Duke of Ormonde and me is as 
wild as the charge, since my Lord Bristol may remember the 
House of Peers hath no power to examine in Scotland. We will 
submit to no examinations but what flow from the King's com- 
mand. And although, when I am in England, I know and shall 
pay all duty to that House, yet their commands reach not hither. 
And if I were in England, 'though I could depone (as indeed I 
know nothing in that charge), yet it were not possible to make 
me depone against the merest servant, much less against the 
King's Chancellor, without his Majesty's knowledge and warrant. 
Now I have wearied you and myself, and if His Majesty have 
patience to read this, I doubt he shall be the weariest of the 
three. Adieu. Past midnight." 

It further appears, from a perusal of these letters, that the 
restoration of Episcopacy and depression of the ultra-Presby- 
terians, the party of the Remonstrators or Protesters, was 
suggested by considerations of civil polity — for the protection of 
the state and monarchy from theocratic or republican despotism 
as a legacy from the Commonwealth, rather than from religious 
animosity or the spirit of proselytism. There are no traces in 
this correspondence, so far as the transcripts I have seen go, of 
the spirit of persecution for mere religion's sake, either in Lauder- 
dale or Rothes, — the latter, indeed, while firmly determined to 
enforce the law, already manifests the lenity which tradition (and 
even Wodrow) attributes to him. Outward conformity was de- 
manded, and contumacy was to be punished, but there was little 
disposition to push inquiry into private opinions or to act as an 
inquisition. The chief difficulty at the time in dealing with the 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 149 

recusants was an inadequacy in the law to deal with the case of 
the holders of conventicles as sedition, although the lesser offence 
(as it was considered) of simple nonconformity fell under that 
character. There were so many too on the Ecclesiastical Com- 
mission to speak for every offender that Rothes complains in 
1665 that that body had lost its terrors for the malcontents. 
It was long before any of the upper classes seem to have taken 
part in the adverse movement ; even Argyll is in friendly 
relations with the government throughout the years in question. 
The bitter remembrance of the Commonwealth and of the 
miseries suffered under it, and the crying necessity of order, of 
repose, of peace, for the recovery of the nation from the collapse 
and ruin in which it had been left by the late civil war and the 
exactions of Cromwell, were an all-pervading sentiment — wit- 
nessed and justified by the frequent illustrations of the extreme 
impoverishment of the Scottish famihes and the exhaustion of 
the Exchequer which occur in the correspondence. It is evident 
from all these considerations that the political march of Charles 
and his Scottish ministers was through a line of country beset 
with every possible difficulty, in Avhich counter-claims pressed on 
every side, and where, with the light they had and the political 
experience of the age, it was next to impossible to strike the right 
track ; but it can at least be said for Lauderdale and his friends 
that, during the years in question, they did what they believed to 
be their duty — mistaken as that belief may have been — honestly, 
and with the full devotion of their time and energy to what they 
understood to be the King's and the public welfare. 

Lastly, I may remark that a warm spirit of affection subsists 
between most of the correspondents, — it is true that they were 
for the most part near relations ; it would be unjust to call them 
a family clique, for they were unquestionably the ablest men in 
Scotland during their time ; but all the tokens of genuine and 
generous friendship are evinced in their intercourse. The influ- 
ence of the Chancellor Dunfermline, which I have dwelt upon 
in the opening pages of this memoir, seems still to rule among 
them. One of the letters in which Rothes replies to an expostu- 
lation of Lauderdale, written on a report having reached London 
that Rothes had been indulging too much in wine, is a model of 
noble and simple sincerity. The whole correspondence, I should 
add, is in the best taste ; it exhibits no taint from the vices of 
the times ; there is not one coarse jest or licentious allusion 
throughout it. The sense of religion is strongly marked, but in 
a broad and Catholic, not Puritanic manner ; there is as little of 
the Roundhead in it as, in an opposite direction, of the light 



150 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

levity and affected irreverence which trequently attached to the 
Cavaher. 

Lastly, a tender memory of Alexander Earl of Balcarres, Lady 
Anna Mackenzie's first husband, is seen to linger on for years 
among his old friends, evidenced from time to time by an allu- 
sion to this or that person, introduced upon the scene, as having 
been one whom he valued, and whom consequently it was incum- 
bent upon them to be kind to."^ 

It is to be hoped that Mr. Vere Irving may some day pub- 
lish this Lauderdale correspondence, or a selection from it. It 
relates to a period of by no means inferior interest in the history 
of Britain, when the great question between Liberty and Order 
was still in active debate, and its issues undetermined in Scot- 
land. It is from documents such as these, which introduce us 
behind the scenes, that that half of truth which deals with the 
motives of the actors in the great drama of history is to be as- 
certained. Popular histories merely reflect popular beliefs, too 
frequently popular delusions. The portion I have perused only 
covers a limited period of time, but it is the period during which 
the policy which governed Scotland up to the time of the Revolu- 
tion was inaugurated, and thus has a peculiar interest. Not 
only that portion, but the whole correspondence, must of course 
be taken in connection with other authentic contemporary 
evidence, in order to enable us to arrive at an impartial and 
complete judgment alike in regard to the character of Charles 
II., and that of his Scottish administration. The more of such 
evidence that can be regained from the grave of the past, the 
better for the cause of truth. If the correspondence in question 
exhibits Charles and his Scottish advisers in a different light 
from that in which they are usually represented, all that can be 
said is, that the evidence is that supplied by the men themselves, 
who best knew their own minds, and wore no disguise when dis- 
cussing their measures together, — nor is it to be forgotten that 
writers, not of the popular school, have drawn Lauderdale's cha- 

■^' Sir Robert Moray, writing to Lauderdale, 7th June 1660, to re- 
commend some one, adds, — " His personal worth were enough alone ; 
but if you knew, as I do, the vahie our dear Gossip had of him and our 
dear Cummer still hath, and the passionate respect he ever paid them, 
I think you would need none other recommendation to move you to 
esteem of him at a very high rate." And again, 6th July 1663, in relation 
to Sir Arthur Forbes (ancestor of Lord Granard), *'I think the King 
recommends him to you, — after that by way of recommendation nothing 
needs be added ; only, were our Gossip in this world, he would own 
great kindness to him." 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackcjizie, 1 5 1 

racter, in particular, as that of a wise and conscientious states- 
man. The very existence of such women as Mary Blagge 
(Mrs. Godolphin, the friend of Evelyn), and of Anna, Countess 
of Balcarres, as members of Charles's court, may well too, in 
another point of view, suggest a doubt whether all there was as 
corrupt as it is popularly supposed to be by the readers of Pepys 
and Count Anthony Hamilton. On this, as on innumerable 
other historical points, there is much yet to clear up. Truth in 
most cases lies between. Our labours during the present cen- 
tury are still •' accumulative — of facts, instances, records, prin- 
ciples, experiences, the materials for future thought," and more 
especially so in history — in anticipation of a better time, when 
the annals of mankind, collectively and nationally, will be wTitten 
with that calm and equitable appreciation, of which, in these days 
of party spirit, hasty generalisation, '' sensational" narrative, and 
one-sided philosophy, there is little present prospect. 



I may close this Postscript by subjoining a few extracts (by 
Mr. Vere Irving's permission), from the Lauderdale papers 
transcribed by him, which will illustrate what has been said 
above, and in the text of this volume, on the subject — i. Of 
Charles II.'s character ; 2. Of the impoverishment of Scotland 
during the years after the Restoration ; and, 3. Of the policy in 
church matters pursued between that epoch and the Revolu- 
tion. 

1. Character of Charles II. — In a letter from Sir Robert 
Moray, from Whitehall, to Lauderdale at Holyrood, he writes as 
follows, on the i6th October 1663, in reporting the conclusion of 
some matter in negotiation : — " In a word, the King did it with all 
the deliberation, all the sense of justice, of honour, and all the 
prudent observations upon every title of the dockets you can 
imagine, and with all the kindness to both the recommenders of 
it heart could wish, and with all the good impressions of the per- 
son you or I can desire, so that it lies upon you both to thank 
the King for what he hath done in it, as if he had given all to 
either of you, and yet more for weighing and considering every 
point of that he hath done so accurately that he is armed against 
anybody alive that will carp at any iota of it. . . . One cir- 
cumstance of weight, I trow, is not to be omitted. The King 
hath done this critical matter, not upon the Earls of Rothes and 
Lauderdale begging it on their knees, but upon their bare recom- 
mendations. It is yet to be remarked that he hath done it when 
the Queen is so very sick that he hath not stirred from her side 
since six in the morning, and is sad at the heart for her condition, 



152 Me^noir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

which appeared evidently by his eyes." And in the same letter, 
with reference to the restoration of Lord Lorn (afterwards Lady 
Anna Mackenzie's second husband) to the ancient honours of 
his family (except the Marquisate), Sir Robert writes, — " The' 
King gave admirable reasons for making him only Earl. . . . 
Observe the providence of the Great God. Yesterday I was ask- 
ing the King if he would give my Lord Lorn leave to come up 
and kiss his hands. ' With all my heart/ said the King ; ^ is he 
here.^' ' No, Sir,' said I ; ^ he is in Scotland.' . . No sooner 
was I at my chamber than I found a letter from him, dated from 
Barbican, telling me he was going to Highgate, and that he 
would come to me to-morrow. I meant to have transcribed the 
little signature" (that is, the warrant for the restoration from his 
father's forfeiture) " at my chamber, but took immediately a 
coach and went to Highgate to him, told him all, and made him 
dictate while I wrote the little signature, which is verbatim\h.^o\\\.^x 
except in the first naming of him and in the clause of the Marquis- 
ship ; then this morning (for it was signed after seven) I asked the 
King, as he was signing (having first told him of Lord Lorn's 
arrival) whether he would have him kiss his hand before you came, 
or stay till then, — he, like himself, that is, ^lepremier gentilhomme 
de I'univers,' bid me bring him to him, which I intend to-morrow, 
God willing ; and you may guess what noise it will make ! " — 
Highgate, I may mention en passant^ was a favourite resort of the 
Scottish friends at this time. Crawford-Lindsay had a house 
there ; and they usually dined and passed the Sunday there, 
returning in the evening. 

Again, in relation to another matter. Sir Robert writes as 
follows, 6th August 1663: — "I cannot tell so much as by a 
probable guess what his Majesty's resolution will be in relation 
to the person ; only I think that he will find so much pressing 
reason on the one side, and so many motives that are of force on 
the other, that, when everything is fully cleared to him, he will 
take some time to balance all, and resolve to what hand to turn. 
Both my Lord Commissioner and you have done very handsomely 
as well as nobly in not offering to advise the one way or the other 
to be taken. All I intend to do is, according to the information 
sent me by the Lord Commissioner, to lay all out before him the 
best I can, and then expect his royal pleasure." 

The King's justice and fair dealing is often alluded to in the 
letters. It may be of little weight that Lauderdale writes to 
Charles, " My comfort and security is in your Majesty's justice, 
so that a good master, a good conscience, and a clear above- 
board carriage in your service does abundantly secure and quiet 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. i s 3 

me agaii)st all base whisperings." But Rotftes' words to Lauder- 
dale, in a letter dated 6th September 1664, bear the stamp of 
sincerity, — " What a new proof of our dear master's justness and 
favour he has given ! . . . It is no wonder we repine at ourselves 
that we should be so little able to serve the best master that ever 
God made." And again, on the 6th January 1664-5, "As the 
King is just to all the world, he will be so to me." 

The letters of Sir Robert Moray are full of incidental illus- 
trations of Charles's ways and doings. "Your last letter," he 
writes to Lauderdale, 9th July 1663, "was presented to the King 
as soon as I had the opportunity to do it, and he read it every 
word, as he useth to do. . . As he was reading that part of your 
letter where it speaks of your having no cause to apprehend in- 
formations if they be but truth, he said, ^ You have indeed no 
cause,' and gave me leave to say of his steadiness, ' that he is as 
firm as the Bass !' . . . This is all I have to say upon your letter ; 
only never fear the length of your letters make them thought 
tedious, seeing, I find, the King reads them with care and satis- 
faction." Many of these audiences were in " the Queen's Bed- 
'chamber," and on one occasion, while the King was sitting there 
awaiting the termination of the mass, at which the Queen was 
assisting, Sir Robert laments her arriving and carrying off the 
King before he had half done the business he had come for. 

On the nth August 1663, during the progress of a protracted 
matter of business, somewhat obscure but connected with the 
marriage of the Duke of Monmouth with the heiress of Buccleuch, 
Sir Robert describes the King as "calling me into his chamber, 
where, though he kept me about an hour to read all was necessary, 
and we said much of all matters, yet w^e left a good deal to 
another time, which, I think, will be next morning." Again, from 
Bath, on the 15th September, he writes on the same subject, that, 
after "having just dined alone like ^a prince,'" he had sat down 
to write to Lauderdale, when a despatch arrived with letters, 
which, having read, " I went to the King where he was dressing 
himself after having been in the bath and sweat. There was 
nobody with him but the Earl of Newburgh and Sir Alexander 
Fraser, besides two grooms and two pages and T. Lile. He was 
reading while his head was a-combing. I, upon his first look off 
the book, cast in a discourse of Dr. Pearce's sermon, that hath 
begot a book that will trouble him to answer ; and that furnished 
matter till he was ready. My Lord Newburgh and I talked at 
turns, and when the King was ready, he stopped his ^Majesty, 
and spoke five or six words to him in a corner. When he had 
done, and the King down stairs, I told him I had an express 



154 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

despatched for him that would take him up some' half-hour. He 
bade me come to him in the evening." It was not, however, till 
the next morning that the interview took place, when at the levee, 
after an hour and a half of general conversation, the company 
retiring, Sir Robert presented Lauderdale's letter, " and desired 
him (the King) to read it attentively. He read it all over, and, 
while he did, rose and went to the window, where, reading aloud, 
I helped him over unclearly written and hard words, and noticed 
passages as he went through." What follows I heed not repeat 
for this present purpose, and " so," continues Moray, " I left him, 
but he quickly overtook me after I was gone out, going to the 
Cross Bath, whither I waited upon him, and saw a number of 
swimming lords and ladies sitting in the niches." After that the 
King dined at Sir Henry Bennet's (the Secretary of State) as he 
did the following day at Lord Herbert's, fourteen miles from 
Bath. A day or two afterwards, the Court having removed to 
Oxford, and the English Council having apparently advised the 
King against the object that Lauderdale and Moray were interested 
in, " I, finding what was resolved on, and thinking what was to 
be done, about eleven yesternight or later, staying till the King 
should come in to undress him, I stept into the Necessary-room, 
and getting pens and paper there, drew a note by way of in- 
struction for the King to send to his Commissioner, whereof I 
mean to enclose here the copy ; . . . and the King came in just as I 
had finished but not read it, whereupon I stept to him and told 
him I had been thinking of what I conceived his Majesty had 
resolved, and had drawn up an instruction in such a way as 
perhaps he might like ; whereupon he began to read it, and 
coming to that part of it that speaks of bringing in the Act to 
the House, he stopt and told me that there are several things 
whereof he is exceedingly tender, and that made him the more 
studious to take right measures. One was the poi-nt of justice, 
wherein he was not clear as yet ; the next, the hazard of the 
success and consequences of that, and the dissatisfaction of those 
he trusts there, and regard to his former orders. To this I told 
him if he would read and think of all, perhaps he would not be 
displeased. So I helped him to read it over in his own hand, 
and when he had read all, he told me he liked it very well. I 
observed how it came up to everything, which he applauded and 
put it in his pocket, telling me he would think on it till to-morrow. 
So, after driving off time with many stories till one o'clock, he 
went to bed, waited on by the Duke of Richmond. This morning, 
soon after five, I was with him, and stayed till he was ready, and 
the Duke, the Prince, Duke of Monmouth, &c., were come to go 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 5 5 

with hinj to the fox-hunting." Charles proceeded that day to 
Cornbury, the seat of the Chancellor Clarendon, and on his return 
to Oxford a day or two afterwards, Moray records the completion 
of the business thus : " After the afternoon sermon I waited 
constantly till sunset for my Lord Chancellor's coming to Court, 
which he then did, but it was an hour after or thereby before the 
King, the Duke, the Chancellor, and Secretary went to a close 
council, where they staid another [hour] before I was called in. 
At last I was, and the King commanded me to sit and read the 
paper I had. . . Long before I had done reading, supper was on 
the table, so when we rose I told his Majesty I would have two 
copies ready for his hand next morning, one to send, another to 
keep, which everybody approved. So this morning I was so early 
at it I was in the Dressing-room long before he came out of the 
Bedchamber, yet he came soon after seven o'clock, but it was 
nine ere I got his hand to the two copies. All his commands 
were kindness, and that he would have you haste hither." 
Catharine of Braganza, I may observe, figures on one of the con- 
versations recorded by Sir Robert in a manner which leaves a 
pleasant impression on the memory, — " As he was going to read 
your letters, the Queen, laying her hand upon him, kept him with 
asking, ' And how does my Lord Lauderdale .^ ' upon which I told 
her I would let you know she had asked that question, to which 
she bowed her head with a very kind smile." ^ 

* I may further cite from one of Sir Robert's letters a stroke of dip- 
lomacy on the part of Middleton and Newburgh, whose intrigues against 
Lauderdale, Crawford- Lindsay, and Moray had occasioned the King's 
displeasure — which shows considerable resource on their side, while 
Charles himself, although he would not countenance it at the moment, 
probably laughed heartily at it afterwards. It is to be premised that 
being admitted to kiss the King's hand was a token of forgiveness on the 
part of the sovereign, and that the two noblemen had just come up to 
London in ^?/<2j"/ - disgrace ; — ''I mentioned in my letter yesternight by 
the ordinary packet that Earls Middleton and Newburgh came hither, I 
think about five o'clock, and told you what he [i.e. Middleton) did at his 
first seeing the King. After the King was retired, as I told you, and he 
had followed him into the Queen's bedchamber ^^'ithout conversing ^vith 
him, he stayed in the Privy Chamber till supper was on the table, about 
nine o'clock, and then when the gentleman-usher went in to give his 
IMajesty notice supper was come. Earls IMiddleton and Newburgh stept 
to him just as he was coming out at the bedchamber door alone. Earl 
Middleton stopt his way, clapt briskly down on his knees, and taking (I 
say, taking) his ]Majesty by the hand kissed it, and so did Newburgh after 
him, without one word spoken. The King passed without fiu'ther looking 
after them, went in to the Presence, and they home. This now was a 
feat of war I had not seen before, — having spoke to the King at his first 



156 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 

II. Impoverishment of Scotland after the Rebel- 
lion. — ^With respect to the exhaustion of the Exchequer, and 
the impoverishment of all classes in Scotland subsequently to 
the Restoration, Rothes, the Treasurer, and Tweeddale, are 
eloquent in their letters to Lauderdale. The former sends Lord 
Bellenden to London in March 1665, to represent " the insup- 
portable condition the Exchequer is in," adding that, if peace is 
not concluded with the Dutch " we are all beggared and undone ; " 
and in another letter, written the same month, he describes the 
kingdom as " so impoverished and harassed with the late 
miserable troubles and rebelhons " that " our poverty is not to 
be expressed." And Tweeddale writes, in the prospect of a tax 
to be imposed for the purpose of defending the coast against the 
Dutch, that " the condition of the country is . . such, through the 
want of trade, the low prices of all the native commodities, es- 
pecially corn, and the extreme want of money, that, if His 
Majesty's reputation be not concerned, if any invasion fall out, 
all hazard of affront and prejudice the country could suffer were 
better adventured by far than a tax imposed, how mean and 
qualified soever." And Rothes states in a second letter, in de- 
precation of such an impost, that "it is true that great sums 
were raised by the usurpers, but it would be considered that 
these sums were by violence extorted by a prevailing army of 
rebels in arms from a subdued people, whose lives and fortunes 
were subject to all their cruelties ; and the greater part of the 
kingdom was so far ruined thereby as they have hardly now [the 
means] to pay their annual rents and maintain their families ; 
yet I dare aver," (he adds), " that their affections are very entire 
to his Majesty, and will be ready to hazard their lives and 
fortunes in his service with great freedom and cheerfulness, 
whereof this last year has given sufftcient proof, that, according 
to their power, they have rather been before than come short of 
any of his Majesty's other subjects." 

In illustration of the private distress of families I may refer 
to a letter of Anne Duchess of Hamilton to Lauderdale, i6th 
November 1664, pressing for payment of an old debt contracted 
in Charles I.'s service, which, added, she says, to that "which 
was engaged in the year 1648" (the year of the Duke's march 

arrival without kissing his hand, to do it thus by a kind of surprise ! 
Perhaps not having seen the King since the two letters were presented, he 
understood by this kiss of the King's hand his admission to grace and 
favour. You will guess by this that I am at leisure and mean to pay you 
with a long letter, yet I do not mean to load it with reflections upon such 
passages." 



Memoir of Lady Ajiiia Mackenzie, 1 5 7 

into England) " makes my condition very desperate ; for all my 
Lord's fortune and mine both will not make one thousand pounds 
free, over and above what pays the interest of the debt I am in." 
The case of Lady Forrester (in her own right), the wife of the eldest 
son of the celebrated Lieut.-General Baillie, as described by herself 
in June 1665, was worse ; for, after coming to London to crave 
relief, she found herself stranded there, absolutely penniless, in 
the midst of the Great Plague, and unable to escape. Rothes 
summarises his official embarrassment as follows about this 
time, — " The necessitous condition of a great part, if not of all 
the most eminent persons in this kingdom renders it impossible 
to satisfy them any way but by giving them to prevent their 
present ruin and supply their pressing necessities : and how im- 
possible that is, judge by the other representations you have had 
of our condition, the truth of which certainly you do not ques- 
tion. Only this hint I must add ; the Customs comes to little or 
nothing this year, and the Excise is exhausted, as, I believe, my 
Lord Bellenden has shown you. Then how is it imaginable that 
I can pay money when the King draws precepts ? " "I wish," 
he adds, subsequently, " the condition of the Exchequer in Scot- 
land were printed, providing it were only to be seen and known 
by Scotsmen, that our poverty might not be blazed through the 
world. It is no wonder I be in some passion when I am on this 
subject, for I believe I have and shall in all appearance beget 
more hatred and malice to myself in this country then I shall be 
able to bear ; but I shall do my. best, and it is in the service of 
my dear master, so I care not what becomes of your affectionate 
friend and servant, Rothes." A melancholy picture ; but the 
ruin of these families and the exhaustion of the country was in- 
curred through loyalty and patriotism, by debts contracted, as a 
general rule, in the public service, and during periods of seques- 
tration at the hand of the usurpers ; and the rags of such poverty 
are honourable insignia in the eyes of posterity. 

in. Policy in Church Matters. — Lastly, in relation to 
the ecclesiastical policy manifested in the re-establishment of 
Episcopacy and the repression of ultra-Presbyterianism subse- 
quently to the Restoration, the key-note may be said to be struck 
in an admirable letter written by Crawford- Lindsay, Lauderdale, 
and Lord Sinclair, to their friends in Scotland previously to the 
King's return, in which they say, " We know but two parties 
in Scotland, those who stand for the rights and, liberties, the 
laws and government of Scotland, and those who have protested 
and acted against those good ends. The last we do not look on 



1 5 8 Me^noir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

as Scotsmen. It is the former whom we humbly exhort to per- 
fect union." Charles and his friends came in as representatives 
of this latter party, the Resolutioners or Engagers of 1648, and, 
in the result, all of them (with the exception of Crawford- Lind- 
say) acquiesced in the view that the re-establishment of Epis- 
copal government, as existing previously to 1637, was necessary 
to the avoidance of the evils, civil and ecclesiastical, which the 
policy of Argyll and the Protesters or Remonstrators of 1650 
had originated. Sharpe, it may be recollected, had always con- 
sistently belonged to the party of the Resolutioners. There are 
many very interesting letters of his in the Lauderdale corre- 
spondence, some of which have been recently printed, with 
valuable historical comments, in the " North British Review." 
The Protesters very speedily declared themselves, and a letter 
from Rothes to Lauderdale, as early as April 1661, characterises 
a remonstrance presented in a provincial synod, and " which was 
to have been read in the several pulpits over the whole shire," 
as " most dangerous," " carrying in its effect exhortations to the 
people to be ready for a new rebellion." He adds that " half 
the ministers were against it" in that particular synod, and that 
" four to one in this kingdom approves of what we have done ; 
and, for God's sake, let not your ten years' absence make you 
mistake your measures." 

In July 1663 Lauderdale reports the enactment of "penalties 
calculated for our Western Dissenters (though the word ^ Papists' 
be put in, of course to bear them company,) " — with the expres- 
sion of his hope that " the penalties will be stronger arguments 
to move them to outward conformity than any divines could use." 
But of how little use they were, and to what height the discon- 
tent was rapidly rising, may be seen in two letters written a couple 
of years afterwards by Rothes. They are in sequence to one in 
which he warns Lauderdale and the King " that if, as God for- 
bid, his Majesty should not have that wished-for success at sea" 
(against the Dutch) "which we not only hope for but expect, I 
do believe a very little irritation would move our disaffected 
people to stir upon any specious pretence. Therefore I would 
humbly beg that his Majesty would give me order that in case 
of any apparent danger I may secure any of them, or as many 
of them as I do expect danger or hazard from ; and, I hope, I 
shall not make use of it but in case of necessity. This you may 
propose to his Majesty if you think fit, and manage it accord- 
ingly. I will have no delight to persecute anybody ; but in case 
of necessity nothing must be stood upon. And I do assure you, 
there are many whose affection even to the King and the kingly 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 159 

government I do very much question." The two letters here 
follow : — '- 

'* 24th November 1665. 

** My dear Lord, 

*' You may justly admire that you have been so long of hear- 
ing from me, but my daily intention to return from the West, and being 
interrupted by bad weather and worse ways, has been the occasion of 
it. To give you an account of the whole journey would be much too 
tedious for you to read ; but, in general, I must say that I found a very 
kind welcome wherever I went. I took a few of the four companies 
that lays at Glasgow, and I must say that in all my life I never see better 
bodies of men, nor men better disciplined. 

"As to the dispositions of the people in this country, I dare not say 
they are well inclined, but must acknowledge I think they are worse 
than I did imagine. Had they any opportunity, I dare not answer, but 
I judge it more than probable they would undertake " {i.e. rise in revolt), 
" though it were desperate enough ; but as they are, I do assure you, I 
have not the least apprehension of any further trouble from them than 
their keeping conventicles and private meetings, which is too much, and 
has of late been too frequent, though their secret convenes renders it 
difficult to discover them till they be over, and then they do immediately 
disperse to all corners of the country. Their meeting-places are most 
commonly at the side of a moss or at the side of a river, and they have 
their spies at a distance on all hands, who give warning if any party 
appear, which makes them run were the party never so small ; but the 
truth is, the cause of most of this trouble we receive in this kind is occa- 
sioned by some ousted ministers, against whom both Council and Com- 
mission has proceeded against, and they have put themselves in disguise, 
so as when they preach they are in grey clothes and long padwicks 
(periwigs), and it is alleged some of them preaches in masks ; and these 
rages stir up the women so as they are worse than devils. Yea, I dare 
say, if it were not for the women, we should have little trouble with con- 
venticles or such kind of stuff; but they are such a foolish generation of 
people in this country, who are so influenced by their fanatic wives as I 
think will bring ruin upon them. 

" Now, to prevent all these troubles, I have dispersed parties through 
the countiy, one of horse to that renowned place, Mauchline Tower, to 
quarter in the to\vn of Mauchline and in the New Mills which is near to 
it ; another party, but of foot, I have sent to Irvine, there being no ac- 
commodation for horse in that place ; and one I am to send to Galloway, 
both of horse and foot, which I will make as considerable as I can ; but 
I delay till I speak with the Bishop, who will be here this night ; and 
another party of horse I send to Jedburgh, for in Teviotdale there are 
many persons as disaffected as in the AYest, and presently there has been 
a great disorder in the parish of Ancrum, they refusing to let the minis- 
ter come into the pulpit ; but the persons are seized and will be severely 
punished. Now these parties I have so dispersed, I hope, will not only 
prevent these disordered meetmgs, but will either catch those rogues, or 



1 60 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

fear of them will chase them out of the comitry. I have bestowed 
money upon several of their followers, and it shall stand me dear and 
much pains but I shall have a hit at some of them. 

" Now, my Lord, since it was seven o'clock before the Council rose 
this night, being taken up with little country debates, judge if I be not 
weary writing this long letter ; but the use I beg you to make of it is to 
pardon the sense and writ, since it comes from 

*' Your ain 

The second letter has its interest, as showing the legal sanc- 
tions and even the scrupulosity with which the Commission for 
Church Affairs acted in dealing with the recusants at the time ; 
while it appears that few amongst the latter were without friends 
upon the Commission to speak in their behalf: — 

'* 2d December 1665. 
"My dear Lord, 

'^ When I wrote my last, you might judge by the 
latter end of it I was not well satisfied with what passed that day in the 
Commission for Church affairs. To tell you all that passed would turn 
this letter into a volume, — yea, that I say nothing of it at all is only that 
you may not fancy it to be somewhat worse than it is, although I must 
confess it has troubled me much ; and in the first place I must inform 
you that our fanatics are become much bolder than they have been this 
twelvemonth past, and now, where they kept scarcely any conventicles 
at all before, at least so quietly they were not known of, they do it in 
the fields by hundreds and very frequently, to prevent which I have sent 
parties through the country with pretty severe orders, such as I could 
give; but I have always concluded that somewhat from the Commission 
of severity would have hindered other persons to fall to such disorderly 
work ; but when it was proposed I found that, both in the President of 
the Session and Advocate, which I did not imagine, for I would have 
had some grounds laid down by the Commission to be rules for our 
punishing of such persons as seditious who keep conventicles, that so we 
might not be put (as we are) to spend a day in finding a suitable punish- 
ment to every man's quality and offence, especially when those that come 
before us are but beggars for the most part, and but tenants at best — so as 
we trouble ourselves more to find out ways to punish them than all the 
punishment we inflict does [trouble] the person who is guilty. But both 
these two did affirm we could not punish keepers of conventicles as 
seditious, because the Act of Parliament does only discharge conventicles 
and mentions no certificate, so that the punishment is arbitrary, and since 
it is so, it were hard to set down rules since the Act of Parliament has 
not done it. But this did appear very strange, since the Act of Parlia- 
ment against withdrawers, which is not near so great a crime, does 
declare them guilty of punishment as seditious persons ; but the truth is, 
these things, with some other expressions from them, did not sound 



Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, 1 6 1 

well ; and there is so many in the Commission to speak on all occasions 
for those who are called before us that those kind of people has lost the 
awe and. fear they had to come before the Commission. Now this, 
with freedom, I have told you ; but it is to yourself alone, to whom I 
speak the veiy inmost thoughts of my heart, so I expect it will go no 
further. . . . Now, my paper being at an end, I can say no more 
but that I am 

** Your own, 

" Rothes." 

It will be acknowledged that these letters do not breathe the 
spirit of religious persecution on the part of Rothes and the 
government, although they unquestionably indicate the necessity 
felt for the suppression of political sedition. 

I shall conclude these extracts with the private letter from 
Rothes to Lauderdale already mentioned, written on the occasion 
of a warning from the latter against indulgence in over- 
conviviality, and which is, I think, equally honourable to both 
parties : — 

" Edinburgh, 14th May 1665. 

" My dear Lord, 

" You have always been my faithful, kind, and 
worthy friend, and there is nothing speaks more of true friendship than 
free advices, and I am sure there is no creature apter to be advised by any 
mortal than I am, and ever shall be, to you. As for that unworthy 
report my enemies raise of my drinking, or countenancing of it, really I 
shall not say but that I shall be more strict and wary hereafter than I 
have been ; but as to my own carriage, if any mortal doth say they have 
seen me in disorder, I shall give them my estate — I mean since I was in 
this station, for you know I have been in my lifetime ; but for my Lord 
Newburgh and sometimes some others, they will go a greater length 
than ever I did or, I am sure, shall approve, be in whose house or com- 
pany they will ; and that I do not delight in some of their companies 
sure you very well know ; and I am very sensible they are none of my 
friends to offer this report. If it have reached my dear master's ears I am 
very unhappy if it be believed, for I hope to do him better sendee than 
can readily be performed by a person guilty of so base a vice. Pray, my 
dear, dear Lord ! let me know if the King has heard any such thing, for 
it troubles me very much, and he so just to me as to judge me most 
sensible of the favour you have done me by your freedom. All I shall 
say is, it is done like my Lord Lauderdale ; and that is, like the best 
friend in the world. 

" I have been these three days in this town at council, and thought 
by this post to have given my humble and free advice concerning the 
fines, but I have had such a crowd of business as it is not possible. But 
in a day or two you shall have it. Wherefore pray forgive me, who am 

'* Most perfectly yours, 

" Rothes." 
M 



1 62 Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie. 

Rothes had from the first a high veneration and regard for 
Lauderdale ; and I may state that, on the release of the latter 
from his nine years' imprisonment in April 1660, he wrote- to him 
with an offer of pecuniary assistance expressed as follows : — 
" My dear Lord, Take it not ill that I apprehend you are not 
furnished with money for such a journey, and use the freedom to 
command me to serve you ; for, whether you go alone, or 1 with 
you, a hunder pounds shall be ready again you call for it ; and 
all the credit, or money, or estate I can command shall be at 
your service, or I pray God let me never have joy of my life or 
fortune." " For God's sake, continue writing to me frequently 
and freely, for your particular advice to myself is the chief pillar 
I lean to, to carry me through this bruckle (unsettled) world." 



It is time, however, this prolonged note should terminate. 1 
need not mention such trifles as Lauderdale writing to Moray 
from Edinburgh, in the midst of harassing work, to send him 
" my little octavo Hebrew Bible, without points, which lies in 
my little closet at Whitehall," and some " little glasses of spirit 
of roses you will find in the middle-drawer of my walnut-tree 
cabinet," which possibly may be still preserved at Ham House. 
Such little touches of individuality are the life and soul of bio- 
graphy. But I must conclude. No one who has lived long in 
company with the dead, sharing in their joys and sympathising 
with their sorrows, can willingly part from them. But what has 
been here said and cited is not irrelevant to the special subject 
of this little volume, as conducing to ; fuller appreciation of the 
circle of friends of which Anna Countess of Balcarres was a 
member during so many years of her life, and all of whom are 
known to history, although less favourably in some instances 
hitherto than, I think, they deserve to be. 



Priuted by R. Clark, Edinburgh. 



